Chalkbeat

Trump gave the Labor Department more control over career-technical education. Will students benefit?

2025-10-03T22:58:16+00:00

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Career and technical education is a lot more than learning to weld or draw blood.

It can expose kids to jobs they didn’t even know existed and help them figure out what they want to do with their lives.

It can also teach students concrete skills they can use on the job right after they graduate high school. But high school programs haven’t always lined up well with what employers are looking for, or prepared students for jobs available in their communities.

The Trump administration wants to see career and technical education, or CTE, focus more on preparing students for jobs. To do that, last month it took money and programs that have been under the Education Department’s purview for decades and moved them to the Labor Department, which has historically focused on short-term job training for unemployed adults.

Trump officials say the end goal is to boost participation in the labor force, especially for the millions of young adults who are not in school or working. The change, they say, will reduce the administrative burden on states and make it easier for states to centralize their own workforce development programs.

‘The kids everyone forgot’: The faltering post-pandemic push to reengage teens and young adults not in school, college, or the workforce

Jason Tyszko, a senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, said there could be some short-term disruption, as well as some hard questions to work through. But if the end result is more accountability for programs and more young people in jobs, that would be a “win for families and learners.”

“We think the more alignment, the better,” Tyszko said.

But many career-technical education advocates, as well as Democrats in Congress, say this move is another step toward dismantling the Education Department. They fear there are simply too few staff in both the Education and Labor Departments to manage the transition, and they worry the change will end up steering kids toward short-term job training with fewer paths to advancement.

High school CTE programs can help create “a springboard for lifelong opportunity,” said Amy Loyd, who served as the assistant secretary over career and technical education during the Biden administration.

For example, students who take advanced manufacturing classes in high school can set themselves up for admission to a trade school, while teens who take college-level health care classes can often earn credit toward an associate or bachelor’s degree.

“One of the challenges that we in the career and technical education community have been working to combat is the still-pervasive stigma of career and technical education being for ‘those kids,’” she said. “I think by focusing on the shorter-term credentials we are again rebuilding this narrative that CTE is for kids who are not college material.”

Two agencies in charge of career-technical education

The Education Department says this change is in line with the president’s April 23 executive order calling for the consolidation of “fragmented Federal workforce development programs that are too disconnected from propelling workers into secure, well-paying, and high-need American jobs.”

In May, Trump officials signed an interagency agreement that maintains the Education Department’s oversight authority for career-technical education, but hands over the day-to-day operations to the Labor Department. That includes distributing over $1 billion to states in Perkins funding, which pays for CTE programs in K-12 schools and community colleges, making compliance monitoring visits, and helping states and schools with technical questions.

High-ranking Democrats in Congress have said this transfer of funds and responsibilities is illegal, and the proposal should have gone to Congress. Others in the career and technical education field say the Education and Labor Departments already work closely together and this move isn’t necessary to improve collaboration.

Anna Chappelle, the executive director of the Alabama Workforce Board, hopes what happens at the federal level resembles the transformation happening in her state. The share of young people who were not working or in school in Alabama was the highest in the nation in 2019, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

In recent years, Alabama has worked to align its education and workforce programs, and has seen the share of people age 16 or over who are employed or actively looking for work tick up. In June, the Trump administration tapped Nick Moore, who led that work under Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, as the second-in-command for CTE at the Education Department.

Alabama launched a state apprenticeship agency that offers tools to connect young people to training opportunities. The state also developed a detailed system for identifying which job credentials and career pathways are most valuable in different parts of the state — whether that’s the space industry in the north or the maritime industry in the south.

“When we have this separation, that keeps states siloed,” Chappelle said. “Being able to have credentials of value and workforce pathways in Labor, that is going to help people get the education and training that they need.”

Philadelphia's Thomas Edison High School leads a welding demonstration at a CTE summer program. Skilled trades programs in high schools can set students up for apprenticeships or admission at a technical college.

She thinks the federal change will lead to more money for training and education programs, “rather than the bureaucratic red tape.”

But Loyd, who is now the CEO of All4Ed, a nonprofit that advocates for equity in education, worries there aren’t enough federal staffers left to provide the kind of “personalized and intensive” guidance her team of 80 once did.

The office “was really leaning into helping states think differently, to not just rubber stamp what always has been,” Loyd said. “I worry that all of that capacity-building, all of that partnership with the field, is ultimately hindered and gutted.”

The Education Department said it would send some staff to the Labor Department, but how many is unclear. The Education Department did not respond to questions. Chalkbeat received out-of-office automatic replies from multiple spokespeople due to the government shutdown.

Some advocates fear states and schools won’t get clear answers to questions about whether new ideas are allowable under the law or how to make sure CTE programs serve all students.

“If we had a question about kids with disabilities and CTE, we knew where to go,” said Braden Goetz, who served in the CTE office during the Biden administration and is now a senior policy advisor at the Center on Education and Labor at New America, a left-leaning think tank. “I’m concerned that in the Department of Labor they won’t have those resources.”

Some fear overemphasis on short-term job training

The Education Department has said its agreement with the Labor Department will integrate education and job training programs “with an employment first perspective, which places employers at the forefront of workforce development programs.” The document mentions “upskilling” students — a term that’s typically used to refer to retraining adults in the workforce, not kids in K-12 schools.

Some education advocates worry that sends the wrong messages to students about the purpose of career-technical education programs, and harkens back to a time when many low-income Black and Latino kids were tracked to lower-level vocational classes.

Loyd, the former Biden official, worries that folding CTE into the Labor Department’s work will lead to an overemphasis on helping students earn industry credentials that often don’t translate to higher wages in the workforce.

Federal law requires CTE programs to prepare students for jobs that are “high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand.” A heavier focus on short-term job outcomes could steer more students toward in-demand jobs that don’t pay very well, Loyd said, such as certified nursing assistants or home health care aides.

“I love programs like phlebotomy programs in high schools where students can earn meaningful certificates that can get them a job,” Loyd said. “But again, this should be a stepping stone,” she said, not the end game.

Tyszko, of the Commerce Foundation, says time will tell if kids get steered like that. He notes that the Labor Department does have experience connecting young people with apprenticeships, which generally do help workers earn more than their peers.

“They’re very capable of supporting a set of activities in the field that promote career awareness and aren’t directly tied to job placement,” Tyszko said, adding it would be wrong to assume the Labor Department’s focus on short-term job training “would entirely consume” career-technical education.

The Labor Department also may be better positioned to hold CTE programs accountable for their outcomes in the workforce, and whether they actually match what employers want and need, he said.

Chappelle in Alabama says what programs kids have access to also affects whether they can make an informed decision about their path. The kind and quality of CTE programs offered at schools varies a lot depending on where kids live, and states and businesses share in the responsibility of closing any gaps.

“We are all working together to make sure we have what’s available for our students and our citizens to go up in life,” she said. “We’re not trying to keep people down. That doesn’t serve anybody.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration push to cut support for English learners turns spotlight on states

2025-09-23T23:28:16+00:00

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Even if the federal government renounces its role in educating English learners, Cheruba Sophia Chavez knows what’s in the fine print.

A federal toolkit helped the New Orleans educator support new immigrant students. Federal guidance helped her train teachers to avoid common violations of English learners’ civil rights. And U.S. Department of Education resources have shown her how Louisiana’s instruction stacks up with other states.

So when the Trump administration reduced the office that oversees English learners to a single person, revoked that guidance, and took the toolkits offline, she pointed teachers to the expansive footnotes on the now-rescinded guidance chock full of “precedent, and law, and case studies, and rulings.”

“Those are still standing,” said Chavez, who has worked with English learners for over a decade. “Our obligation to serve these children remains the same.”

Under President Donald Trump, the federal government is systematically retreating from helping educate English learners and protecting their civil rights. In addition to yanking federal guidance and resources, the president is seeking to eliminate all $890 million in federal funding for English language acquisition programs in schools.

All of that puts more responsibility on states and local schools to educate English learners. Their track record of doing so is mixed.

Some say states can and will fill the void, and may do a better job without federal oversight. But many educators and experts fear that setup will leave English learners and their families behind. Services and protections for English learners will become more scattershot, they say, and students whose rights are violated may have no recourse other than to file lawsuits — an expensive and uncertain proposition for families and schools.

Already, about 1 in 5 teachers say their school rarely or never meets the needs of children learning English, according to a 2023 nationally representative survey.

“We have states who will make sure that the students keep receiving the resources and the instruction that English learners need, but we have other states who aren’t necessarily going to,” said Montserrat Garibay, who led the federal Office of English Language Acquisition during the Biden administration. She worries “we’re going to go back to the ’90s ‘sink or swim’ methods, where you have students who are not going to learn the language and are going to fail.”

Should the feds pay for students to learn English?

All schools must help English learners overcome language barriers so they can access a meaningful education. It’s a requirement under the 1974 landmark Supreme Court ruling in Lau v. Nichols.

Right now, states get federal Title III dollars for English language acquisition programs based on census counts of children learning English. School districts apply for that money, and states award it based on how many English learners and immigrant students they enroll.

Immigrants are generally more successful in the U.S. if they acquire English skills, said Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for lower rates of immigration. And public school programs that teach kids English are “an investment that’s generally understood as worth it,” Vaughan said, especially for younger children.

But she understands why taxpayers might be “frustrated by having to bear the cost” of programs for older children who arrive with little formal schooling and may need more intensive support.

To Vaughan, the Trump administration is doing the right thing by moving away from influencing what states provide with offers of federal funding.

“I would expect states to support local communities that are dealing with it,” she said. “States are going to have to work this out within their own budget.”

States already dictate what kind of instruction they offer to English learners and how much native language support schools provide.

Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow in education policy at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, says eliminating Title III funding would rightly reduce the federal government’s role in education.

“I don’t believe that we need Title III in order to have programs for English language learners,” Butcher said. States should be able to identify on their own which student needs deserve the most support, he said. “This is the kind of freedom that we should be giving state officials.”

And if a state chose not to spend anything to help English learners become proficient in English? “There would be a civil rights lawsuit,” Butcher said.

Others say the federal government sets immigration policy, so it should help states pay for the K-12 education of new arrivals, and that the federal government has a vested interest in helping English learners — most of whom were born in the U.S.

“If they’re not well-equipped with the skills that they need for the 21st century, who’s going to pay for my retirement?” said Garibay, the former Biden official. “I hate to say that it’s an economy thing, but it is.”

Congress currently puts $890 million annually toward English language acquisition. That Title III money is meant to pay for extra support like after-school tutoring, family outreach, and teacher training.

But many educators and advocates say those federal funds have failed to keep pace with the growth of the English learner population and fall far short of what schools need.

Still, Trump has proposed eliminating Title III funds from the fiscal year 2026 budget, a move that his administration says would “end overreach from Washington.” After the president signed an executive order designating English as the nation’s official language, Trump officials said the English language acquisition program should be eliminated because it “actually deemphasizes English primacy” and encourages bilingualism.

The broader political climate is also a factor. Many children from immigrant families are experiencing heightened stress and fear as the Trump administration’s deportation campaign intensifies. That makes it harder to show up regularly to school and stay focused in class.

Federal law and court decisions say states can choose what kind of instruction they provide to English learners. Some states lean more heavily on helping children become proficient in their native language first, which research has shown can help them transfer skills and develop stronger English abilities.

The Senate appropriations committee passed a bipartisan bill that would hold Title III funding steady at $890 million. But the House appropriations committee approved the elimination of Title III, citing “funding constraints.”

Leslie Villegas, a senior policy analyst at New America, a left-leaning think tank, says ending Title III would be a general funding cut that would “hurt all students.” And it would put educators in “a really difficult position to make hard choices that they shouldn’t have to make.”

Becky Trammell, a special education teacher in Minneapolis Public Schools, knows what that’s like.

Recent waves of immigration brought more Spanish-speaking families to her elementary school, in addition to Somali- and Hmong-speakers. After splitting an English learner teacher with other schools, her school now has two full-time.

But Trammell said she still has to rely on apps and phone interpretation services that don’t always work.

Students at a New York City high school for newcomers work on a history essay using resources in the hallway.

Once, a Somali-speaking parent thought she was being pranked because the phone interpreter didn’t actually speak Somali. And one of her students told her he doesn’t like the phone translation app, so she reads it aloud in her broken Spanish.

“We’re already working at a deficit when it comes to staffing and money,” Trammell said. If her school were to lose Title III dollars, she worries “they’re going to cut positions or what little supports we do have, we’re not going to have those.”

What are key state policies for English learners?

States already set many of their own policies for educating English learners and see a wide range of outcomes.

English learners in Texas, for example, are much more likely to be enrolled in bilingual education programs where they receive native language support than in California, which has a complicated history with English-only instruction. Texas’ English learners consistently outperform English learners in California on key national tests — though state test scores in Texas have raised concerns.

With less federal involvement and oversight, Villegas at New America worries families of English learners and their advocates will find it harder to seek redress for their complaints.

“Leaving it up to the discretion of states to do that, that’s really troubling,” she said. That is “not the point of civil rights.”

The Trump administration has released several school districts, including Boston and Newark, New Jersey from settlement agreements meant to correct inadequate services for English learners. In Newark, the end of government monitoring came just months after the Biden administration flagged the district for failing to consistently use qualified interpreters.

Chavez, the Louisiana educator, fears that if Title III goes away, there will be less federal monitoring, and that English learners will only get their needs met if they make up a “critical mass” at a school.

One moment sticks in her memory: When Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was sworn in last year, one of the Republican’s first actions was to veto a new policy Chavez and other educators lobbied for to help more English learners get their diplomas.

“We know their posture toward English learners,” Chavez said, adding that she and others aren’t “looking to the state for anything affirmative to protect our children and to close the disparate outcomes for English learners in our state.”

Still, advocates for English learners say there is a lot states can do.

They can enshrine the Supreme Court ruling that gave children the right to receive a free public education regardless of their immigration status in state law, as Illinois and Massachusetts recently did. Or they can bolster requirements for how English learners are taught in their state, as Michigan recently did.

School boards could also adopt policies that add oversight and consequences if goals aren’t met, Villegas said.

When Garibay worked in the federal English learner office, she saw “a lot of great work” happening in dual language programs and parent engagement.

“That gives me a lot of hope,” she said. “In these very uncertain times, the most important work happens at the local level.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

The fall of affirmative action still fuels debates over race and education. Here’s why.

2025-09-16T16:55:46+00:00

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Two years after the Supreme Court ended affirmative action as America knew it, the decision has become the cornerstone of the Trump administration’s legal argument against nearly any effort to promote diversity in education.

In a new book, legal scholar Justin Driver tries to set the record straight about what Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard does and does not mean.

Checking off a box to indicate your race? No. Looking at an applicant’s name or photo to guess their race? Also no.

But giving admissions preferences to the descendants of slaves, immigrants, enrolled tribal members, or kids who come from disadvantaged schools and neighborhoods? That’s all fair game in Driver’s book, “The Fall of Affirmative Action.”

“A major reason that uncertainty engulfs the SFFA decision is the Trump administration’s efforts to distort what the decision actually means,” said Driver, a professor at Yale Law School. “The Trump administration has contended that universities are prohibited from taking steps to improve racial diversity on campus, even when they do not use express racial classifications of individual students. That’s not something that SFFA v. Harvard forbids.”

Trump administration officials have said the ruling applies to K-12 schools, not just colleges, and that it extends beyond admissions to hiring, scholarships, prizes, support for students, discipline, graduation ceremonies, and “all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

A federal judge blocked the administration from applying that interpretation. But the head of the Justice Department recently issued similar guidance stating that racially neutral strategies, such as considering a child’s ZIP code, are unlawful proxies if they’re used to boost racial diversity. (Even before SFFA, K-12 schools could not consider the race of an individual child for the purposes of school desegregation, but courts have permitted that kind of geographic targeting.)

Education Secretary Linda McMahon told colleges last month they now have to report the race of all applicants and admitted students, along with grades and test scores, to prove they aren’t using racial preferences. The administration has also sought to bar universities from using any “identity-based preferences” and opened an investigation into a selective Virginia high school over its admissions policies, even after the Supreme Court let them stand.

All of that has the very real effect of confusing kids of color who aspire to attend highly selective colleges, Driver writes. He points to the experience of Demar Goodman, a Black student from Atlanta who set his sights on attending Harvard. After the Students for Fair Admissions decision, the teen decided it wasn’t worth applying. And he changed the topic of his personal essay from how he overcame the challenges of attending an underfunded school to why he collects flag pins.

Since the ruling, Black and Hispanic enrollment has fallen at many top colleges, as has the share who are admitted.

“Universities, in my view, should investigate every constitutionally permissible means that they can use to make sure that they do not have a paucity of Black and brown students,” Driver said. “This nation is confronting grave problems today. Too many Black students at fancy colleges is not among them.”

Chalkbeat spoke with Driver about how the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would view today’s affirmative action debates, the parallels between the Students for Fair Admissions decision and a major ruling on K-12 desegregation efforts, and why colleges shouldn’t give up on diversifying their student bodies.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

You draw attention to how jurists like Antonin Scalia have explicitly said that if a program just happens to benefit Black students, but its goal is actually to lift up low-income or disadvantaged kids, they don’t have a problem with that. Why do you think those arguments have gotten lost in the conversations we’re having now about what constitutes an ‘illegal proxy’ for race?

Justice Scalia is not my favorite justice of all time, but he is, in my estimation, the most influential justice of the last five decades. President Trump has said he wishes to appoint justices in the mold of Scalia. One of the things that I’m attempting to do is to remind people of this passage from this major figure in American constitutional thought [that] has been overlooked from his days as a law professor.

He can be understood to be fleshing out what Chief Justice Roberts’ SFFA opinion says: What’s forbidden is race qua race, race for the sake of race. Justice Scalia says, when he’s writing decades earlier: If universities are attempting to court students from, say, low-income backgrounds, if those students who benefit end up all being Black, that is constitutionally permissible, because it’s not treating people with race qua race.

The Trump administration says if universities decide to get rid of, say, standardized testing with an eye toward increasing racial diversity, that’s forbidden. Justice Scalia has written things that vehemently disagree with that.

What do you think the legacy of SFFA is so far for the K-12 level?

I found it quite noteworthy that in the wake of SFFA, the Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit involving Thomas Jefferson High School in northern Virginia. It seems to me that was an indication that the Supreme Court did not want to get further enmeshed in this business of race and admissions anytime soon.

I do think that one way to understand SFFA is that it brings the court’s jurisprudence involving higher education and what we might call lower education into harmony. The Parents Involved case from 2007 can be understood as also now applying to higher education.

The Parents Involved opinion was really a fight about the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education. Louisville and Seattle did, in some instances, take account of the race of individual students with an eye toward promoting racial integration. Because if you simply assign students to the local schools, the persistence of residential segregation would prevent the schools from reflecting the diversity of the areas. The Supreme Court invalidated that measure.

But Justice Kennedy, writing the controlling opinion, says that while racially classifying individual students is forbidden, nothing prohibits school districts from drawing district boundaries with an eye toward promoting integration, nothing prohibits them from deciding where to build a school within a city with an eye toward promoting racial integration. Justice Kennedy expressly says color blindness is not required in all instances.

And that’s where we are with respect to SFFA v. Harvard, which says that students can write essays about their encounters with racial discrimination. And there are other approaches that would court students from low-income backgrounds that would not violate the Constitution of the United States. That’s an underappreciated aspect of this decision.

Some think, in this political moment, colleges should just keep their heads down, not draw attention to themselves with new policies that aim to diversify their student bodies. You say you think that that’s a mistake. Why is that?

I get that college administrators are in a very difficult position. The Trump administration is being difficult.

However, these institutions have a responsibility to stand up for their core principles and should not permit a misinterpretation of a Supreme Court opinion to mandate the composition of their student bodies. That is fundamentally a matter of university autonomy and academic freedom.

Just because the Trump administration wishes that the SFFA decision went further than it did, that does not succeed in making the Trump administration’s vision the law of the land.

We are in the midst of seeing — or perhaps more accurately, not seeing — a lost generation of Black students on elite college campuses. The consequences of that decline are going to be felt throughout American society for generations to come. What starts on college campuses doesn’t remain there.

Universities have an entire panoply of options that are open to them that do not violate the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. At universities that have suffered these staggering declines in Black enrollment, we should understand those declines for what they are: a choice.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration axes federal Blue Ribbon program that recognized high-achieving schools

2025-09-04T23:37:41+00:00

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The Trump administration won’t be handing out any blue ribbons to schools this year.

As President Donald Trump seeks to scale back the federal role in education in key respects, Education Department officials told state education agencies on Aug. 29 that they were ending the longstanding National Blue Ribbon Schools program, which honors high-performing schools and schools that have successfully narrowed academic gaps between student groups.

Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the department, said in the letter that the move was “in the spirit of Returning Education to the States” — a common refrain from Education Secretary Linda McMahon as the Trump administration has slashed staff at the department and sought to reduce federal spending on education.

“State leaders are best positioned to recognize excellence in local schools based on educational achievements that align with their communities’ priorities for academic accomplishment and improvement,” Biedermann wrote. “Awards conceived by those closest to the communities and families served by local schools will do more to encourage meaningful reforms than a one-size-fits-all standard established by a distant bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.”

The decision appears to have been made abruptly: States had already nominated schools for the award. In fact, the deadline for states to sign off on their picks was just one week prior to the cancellation letter. In some cases states had informed schools that they had won, pending the official federal announcement.

The Alabama Daily News first reported the cancellation.

The Blue Ribbon program’s goal is to highlight standout public and private schools and share best practices across the country. Winning the award typically brings positive attention and news coverage to schools, and is a badge of honor that can help attract new students, recruit teachers, and boost private fundraising.

Biedermann said the department is still encouraging states to recognize the schools they nominated for the 2025 competition. But she added that states can now get creative and tailor their own recognition programs to celebrate exemplary schools in certain subjects, or focus on new areas, such as success in preparing students for the workforce and apprenticeships.

Raven Hill, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Education, said the state is exploring next steps, but the pride that comes from national recognition won’t be easy to replace.

“The schools that receive the Blue Ribbon recognition are our crown jewels,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how long ago a school was recognized, they carry that pride. We can revive our state program, but it would be difficult to replicate the prestige.”

Terrel H. Bell, President Ronald Reagan’s first education secretary, created the Blue Ribbon program in 1982. Bell famously commissioned the study that became “A Nation At Risk,” which raised alarms about the quality of American education and spurred various reforms. Reagan also wanted to eliminate the Education Department at the time.

There have been other attempts to get rid of the program, including in 1992 when Congress defunded the program, leading to the abrupt cancellation of the competition. Letters and phone calls poured into Congress, Education Week reported at the time, and funding was eventually restored.

National editor Erica Meltzer contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration tells 40 states to remove gender identity from sex ed or lose federal funds

2025-08-26T21:11:05+00:00

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The Trump administration is threatening to pull federal funding from 40 states for a sex education program aimed at vulnerable teens unless those states remove references in their curriculum to gender identity and transgender people.

In a Tuesday press release, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the action reflected the Trump administration’s “ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology.”

The threat comes after California refused to change its curriculum last week and HHS terminated the state’s nearly $6 million-a-year grant.

The states that received notices to change their curriculum are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Withholding federal funds to punish states for teaching about gender identity is yet another way the Trump administration has sought to control what young people learn and advance the president’s view that there are only two sexes, male and female.

Through numerous civil rights investigations and lawsuits, the Trump administration is also seeking to prevent trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams and stop schools from letting trans kids use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds with their gender identity.

States will have 60 days to comply or risk losing their federal funds for the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP.

PREP represents a small slice of sex ed nationwide, and provides most states with just a few million dollars a year. But it targets a particularly vulnerable group of teens and pre-teens who are at a higher risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. In California, many of the 13,000 young people who participate each year live in foster care, are incarcerated, or are experiencing homelessness.

Back in June, HHS told California that it was out of compliance with the federal law that established PREP, because its materials included instruction about what it means to identify as transgender and that gender identity is not always synonymous with the sex someone is assigned at birth. The agency subsequently reviewed curriculum used by other states — many of which use some of the same materials as California.

In the termination announcement, HHS also said that parts of California’s curriculum “could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body … through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’” This appears to refer to the possibility that students might socially transition or pursue gender-affirming medical care.

California officials told HHS that they wouldn’t change their materials because they were medically accurate, previously approved by the agency, and compliant with federal law — which is silent on whether PREP should teach about gender identity. State health officials also said that changing the curriculum could prompt public schools that use the same materials to drop them, because California law requires sex ed to include information about gender identity.

A spokesperson for the state’s public health department did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about how it planned to address the funding gap. California health officials told the Trump administration they reserved the right to challenge the funding termination, but they have yet to do so.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration rolls back pivotal guidance about educational rights of English learners

2025-08-20T20:01:44+00:00

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The Trump administration has quietly rescinded guidance spelling out the educational rights of the nation’s more than 5 million English learners that educators say was crucial to serving children from immigrant families.

In recent weeks, a Dear Colleague letter issued in 2015 by the Education Department and Department of Justice was stamped with a red message saying the document had been formally rescinded. Neither agency issued a public notice explaining the rationale for the change as they usually do when they roll back federal guidance.

The rescission comes after the Trump administration laid off nearly every staffer in the Education Department responsible for serving English learners and looks to wind down a federal website that provides toolkits for helping English learners. The administration has also proposed zeroing out dedicated Title III funding for English learners and issued an executive order declaring English the official language of the United States.

Trump officials also cleared the way for immigration agents to make arrests at or near schools, child care centers, and after-school programs, undoing a longstanding precedent to treat those places as sensitive locations. The administration’s mass deportation campaign has left many school communities shaken and lowered student attendance in some parts of the country.

Unlike students with disabilities, whose rights are clearly spelled out in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the rights of English learners stem from multiple Supreme Court cases and federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on national origin, which courts have interpreted to mean schools must take steps to help children overcome language barriers so they can obtain a meaningful education.

The 40-page Dear Colleague letter was groundbreaking when it was released under former President Barack Obama and remained a critical resource, according to educators who relied on the guidance. It gathered various case law, legal precedents, and federal requirements regarding English learners in the same place and provided clear examples about how students should be served.

Rescinding the guidance doesn’t change those laws, but advocates for English learners worry it will now be harder for schools to know if they are complying with the law and to hold schools accountable when they are not.

“A lot of people are very worried at the state and district level,” said Montserrat Garibay, the advocacy chair for the National Association for Bilingual Education. Without clear guidance, “there’s a high risk that EL students are not going to be receiving their linguistic and their academic support that they need.”

Trump Education Department decimates office serving 5 million English learners in public schools

Garibay, the former director of the Office of English Language Acquisition during the Biden administration, likened the guidance to a “bible” for educators who work with students learning English. Her organization is hosting a training next month to help schools navigate its loss.

Garibay said she used to print out the 40-page guidance document when she was a teachers union leader in Texas and use it to train teachers. She knew teachers who would highlight the pages and bring it to their principal to ensure they assessed English learners properly and provided families with documents in their native language.

An Education Department spokesperson told Chalkbeat on Tuesday that the department had rescinded the guidance “because it is not aligned with Administration priorities” but did not respond to followup questions about what exactly was out of alignment.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency had no comment on Wednesday.

But the agency referred the Washington Post to a July memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to all federal agencies offering guidance to comply with Trump’s order that English be the official language.

That memo says the Justice Department would rescind any guidance that interprets the federal ban on national original discrimination to require language services for people who aren’t proficient in English. It also said the agency would “lead a coordinated effort to minimize non-essential multilingual services” and “redirect resources toward English-language education and assimilation.”

The 2015 guidance document says that schools must, to the extent practicable, translate certain notices for parents into a language they can understand and provide free oral translation when a written translation isn’t possible.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Plenty of schools have no-zeroes policies. And most teachers hate it, a new survey finds

2025-08-20T04:01:00+00:00

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About one in four teachers say their schools don’t give students zeroes. And nearly all of them hate it.

The collection of practices known as equitable grading, which includes not giving students zeroes, not taking off points for lateness, and letting students retake tests, has spread in the aftermath of the pandemic. But it wasn’t known how widespread the practices were.

A new nationally representative survey released Wednesday finds equitable grading practices are fairly common, though nowhere near universal. More than half of K-12 teachers said their school or district used at least one equitable grading practice.

The most common practice — and the one that drew the most heated opposition in the fall 2024 survey — is not giving students zeroes for missing assignments or failed tests. Just over a quarter of teachers said their school or district has a no-zeroes policy.

Around 3 in 10 teachers said their school or district allowed students to retake tests without penalty, and a similar share said they did not deduct points when students turned in work late. About 1 in 10 teachers said they were not permitted to factor class participation or homework into students’ final grades.

Only 6% of teachers said their school used four or more equitable grading practices.

That was surprising to Adam Tyner, who co-authored the new report for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, in partnership with the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. He expected more schools would be following a “whole package” of grading reforms supported by advocates like former teacher and education consultant Joe Feldman, who wrote the influential book “Grading for Equity.”

“It’s not like this has swept the country,” said Tyner, who has studied grading practices. He argues that some policies meant to create equity lead to grade inflation and don’t benefit students.

The findings come as many schools are rethinking what students should have to do to get a high school diploma, and how much emphasis should be put on grades. At the same time, many schools continue to struggle with student disengagement and historically high rates of absenteeism following the pandemic. As a result, they’re trying to hold students accountable for their work without making it impossible to catch up on missed assignments.

Though ideas about how to grade students more fairly predate the pandemic, several large districts started rethinking their grading practices following that disruption, as more students struggled to meet strict deadlines or do their homework.

Proponents of equitable grading say it’s important for students to be able to show what they know over time, and that just a few zeroes averaged into a grade can make it difficult for students to ever catch up. When students don’t see a path to passing a class, it can make them less motivated or stop trying altogether.

Still, some teachers have pushed back, arguing that no-zeroes policies can hurt student motivation, too.

That showed up in the recent survey.

Eight in 10 teachers said giving students partial credit for assignments they didn’t turn in was harmful to student engagement. Opposition to no-zeroes policies came from teachers of various racial backgrounds, experience levels, and who worked with different demographics of students.

No-zeroes policies can take various forms but often mean that the lowest possible grade is a 50 on a 100-point scale. Some schools use software that will automatically convert lower grades to a 50, one teacher wrote on the survey.

Schools that enrolled mostly students of color were more likely to have no-zeroes policies, the survey found. And middle schools were more likely than high schools and elementary schools to have no-zeroes policies, no-late-penalty policies, and retake policies.

Researchers weren’t sure why those policies popped up more in middle schools.

But Katherine Holden, a former middle school principal in Oregon’s Ashland School District who trains school districts on equitable grading practices, has some guesses.

High schools may be more worried that changing their grading practices will make it harder for students to get into college, Holden said — a misconception in her eyes. And districts may see middle schoolers as especially likely to benefit from things like clear grading rubrics and multiple chances to show what they know, as they are still developing their organization and time-management skills.

In the open-ended section of the survey, several teachers expressed concerns that no-zeroes policies were unfair and contributed to low student motivation.

“Students are now doing below-average work or no work at all and are walking out with a C or B,” one teacher told researchers.

“Most teachers can’t stand the ‘gifty fifty,’” said another.

More than half of teachers said letting students turn in work late without any penalty was harmful to student engagement.

“[The policy] removes the incentive for students to ever turn work in on time, and then it becomes difficult to pass back graded work because of cheating,” one teacher said.

But teachers were more evenly divided on whether allowing students to retake tests was harmful or not.

“Allowing retakes without penalty encourages a growth mindset, but it also promotes avoidance and procrastination,” one teacher said.

Another said teachers end up grading almost every assignment more than once because students have no reason to give their best effort the first time.

The report’s authors recommend getting rid of blanket policies in favor of letting individual teachers make those calls. Research has shown that other grading reforms, such as grading written assignments anonymously or using grading rubrics, can reduce bias.

Still, teachers don’t agree on the best approach to grading. In the survey, 58% of teachers said it was more important to have clear schoolwide policies to ensure fair student grading — though the question didn’t indicate what that policy should look like — while the rest preferred using their professional judgment.

“There are ways to combat bias, there are ways to make grading more fair, and we’re not against any of that,” Tyner said. “What we’re really concerned about is when we’re lowering standards, or lowering expectations. … Accountability is always a balancing act.”

Nicole Paxton, the principal of Mountain Vista Community School, a K-8 school in Colorado’s Harrison School District 2, has seen that balancing act in action.

Her district adopted a policy a few years ago that requires teachers to grade students on a 50-100 scale. Students get at least a 50% if they turn in work, but they get a “missing” grade if they don’t do the assignment. Middle and high schoolers are allowed to make up missing or incomplete assignments. But it has to be done within the same quarter, and teachers can deduct up to 10% for late assignments.

Paxton thinks the policy was the right move for her district. She says she’s seen it motivate kids who are struggling to keep trying, when before they stopped doing their work because they didn’t think they could ever bounce back from a few zeroes.

“As adults, in the real world, we get to show what we know and learn in our careers,” Paxton said. “And I think that kids are able to do that in our building, too.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Schools do not have to follow Trump administration’s DEI order, federal judge rules

2025-08-15T20:57:58+00:00

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Schools do not have to abide by or certify compliance with the Trump administration’s contested interpretation of civil rights law laid out in February, after a federal judge overturned the policy and related guidance on Thursday.

In an opinion that applies to schools nationwide, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher wrote that the Trump administration had failed to follow the proper administrative procedures to make such a sweeping change, and that both a Feb. 14 Dear Colleague letter issued by the Education Department and a related certification requirement were unlawful.

Multiple lawsuits against the rules already had resulted in a patchwork of injunctions. However, Gallagher’s decision will likely bring some relief to many school leaders and state education officials who had worried they would lose federal funding if they did not certify compliance with the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal anti-discrimination laws — and that complying could mean dropping commonly used diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

“The government did not merely remind educators that discrimination is illegal: it initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct, causing millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished,” Gallagher wrote.

The Feb. 14 guidance and certification requirement had been put on hold as three separate lawsuits worked their way through the courts. That included the case brought by the American Federation of Teachers and others that led to the Thursday ruling, as well as lawsuits from a coalition of state attorneys general and the Legal Defense Fund on behalf of the NAACP.

Randi Weingarten, the head of the AFT, said in a statement on Friday that the judge’s ruling represented “a huge win for students, families and educators” and a rebuke of the government’s attempt to “chill teachers’ duty to create safe and welcoming classrooms where critical thinking is valued and history is presented in an open and honest way.”

In an email, a spokesperson for the Education Department said the department was disappointed in the judge’s ruling, but that getting rid of the guidance “has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level,” referring to the federal law that bans discrimination based on race, skin color, and national origin in schools.

“The Department remains committed to its responsibility to uphold students’ anti-discrimination protections under the law,” the spokesperson wrote.

The spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether the Trump administration intends to appeal the decision.

The Trump administration continues to advance its opposition to DEI on several fronts. It is conducting civil rights investigations into states and school districts over practices ranging from the launch of a Black student success plan in Chicago to the use of race-based affinity groups for staff and students. Officials have slashed federal grants designed to expand opportunities for students of color or that were awarded with student diversity in mind.

And Attorney General Pam Bondi recently issued a memo to all federal agencies with similar intentions as the Education Department’s now-defunct guidance, noting that DEI programs can be discriminatory and that relying on certain race-neutral criteria, such as “cultural competence,” “lived experience,” or geography, can violate federal law if it’s used a proxy for a protected characteristic, like race, to create advantages for some people.

Gallagher, who was nominated to her position by President Donald Trump during his first term, did not weigh in on whether the Education Department’s DEI policy was “good or bad,” but said that the agency could not go “leapfrogging” over important procedures in federal law.

The judge held that the Education Department’s guidance and certification requirement amounted to new legislative rules — not a restating of existing federal laws and requirements, as the Trump administration has said — and that the Education Department should have explained why it changed course and offered a public notice and comment period to give schools and others adequate time to weigh in.

The department’s Feb. 14 guidance also interprets the Supreme Court ruling that bars affirmative action in higher education admissions “far more broadly,” the federal judge wrote, to include much more than “preventing using race as a factor in ‘zero-sum’ opportunities like admissions, hiring, promotions, or awards.”

“The administration is entitled to its own views, including on how court cases and laws should be interpreted,” Gallagher wrote. “But it is not entitled to misrepresent the law’s boundaries, and must at a minimum acknowledge and consider the relevant legal framework as it is. It cannot blur the lines between its viewpoint and existing law.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump wants to put money for homeless kids into a block grant. School staff are wary.

2025-07-31T20:03:55+00:00

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Federal funding for homeless students has helped Metro Nashville Public Schools meet kids’ evolving needs for decades.

It has sent tutors to family shelters to help children with their school work. It has paid for transportation when families got priced out of their homes and suddenly had to move cross-county.

And it pays for liaisons like Catherine Knowles, who for 28 years has listened to what homeless families say they really need and tried to respond. That’s why the district has a hotel-friendly food pantry filled with items like shelf-stable milk, microwaveable mac and cheese cups, and just-add-water cereal bowls.

“We’re giving that recognition of: We really do see what you’re going through,” Knowles said, “and we then have the flexibility to be responsive to that because we have funding and we have dedicated resources.”

The Trump administration has proposed doing away with this dedicated funding. The president’s Education Department budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 consolidates money for homeless students and 17 other programs into a single, much smaller K-12 block grant.

States would get $2 billion, down from the roughly $6.5 billion the federal government spends now. Schools could keep spending that money on the students and activities envisioned in federal law, or on a range of other activities, such as “promoting patriotic education,” or improving instruction in math, reading, science, and history.

For America’s 250th birthday, Trump champions ‘patriotic education’ in schools again

In the current federal budget, Congress allocated $129 million to support homeless students with McKinney-Vento funding, named for the 1987 federal law that guarantees homeless children certain educational rights. That’s a tiny fraction of the roughly $18 billion the federal government spends specifically on high-poverty schools. Liaisons like Knowles worry homeless students will fall down the priority list if schools no longer get funding specifically to serve them.

“There is such increasing need among students in public education, in general,” Knowles said. “Without McKinney-Vento dedicated funding specifically spelling out our responsibilities and the rights of students experiencing homelessness, I’m just afraid it could kind of all get lost in the shuffle.”

Why Congress set aside money for homeless students

The Education Department has said the block grant would give states and schools the ability to spend federal funds more in line with their needs, “without the unnecessary administrative burdens imposed under current law.”

Several Republican governors have said they’d welcome education block grants. And some states, such as Iowa, that are seeking more flexibility in how they spend their federal education dollars have said they would continue to meet the needs of unique student groups, including homeless students.

Right now, the federal government gives each state money for homeless students based on their share of Title I funds, which support students in poverty. Then the state awards the money to districts on a competitive basis, because the sum is too small to divide among all of them. Around 1 in 5 school districts nationally get McKinney-Vento funding, which means many districts are required to hire homeless liaisons and meet homeless students’ needs without dedicated funding.

But school liaisons and advocates for homeless youth are calling on Congress to maintain funding for students experiencing homelessness as a standalone program.

In the early days of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Congress tasked states and schools with rewriting policies and collecting data about students experiencing homelessness. That work exposed gaps in support, and prompted Congress to set aside money specifically for these students in 1990.

“The dedicated funding was about responding to those barriers,” said Barbara Duffield, the executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection. In addition to legal protections, “you also have to have somebody who goes out looking for you, makes sure you have a ride, actually makes sure you can get enrolled.”

Since then, McKinney-Vento funding has played an outsized role in under-resourced communities that lack shelters, and “where the school literally might be the source of services for these families,” Duffield said.

Volunteers stack the shelves of the hotel-friendly food pantry in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Researchers and school staff also point out that students experiencing homelessness have specific needs and greater academic challenges than even other children from low-income families. Homeless students have higher rates of absenteeism and are less likely to graduate from high school than their housed peers, even when compared with other kids living in poverty.

“Just imagine: If you go to a school that has high poverty, you’ve already been in poverty your whole life, and now you’re also unhoused,” said Jessica Smith, a social worker who is the McKinney-Vento coordinator for Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools. “It looks completely different than a student who just is low-income. Those babies need assistance, too, but our babies need just a little bit more of a focus.”

Smith, for example, uses part of her district’s McKinney-Vento funding to take high schoolers who live on their own without help from a parent to visit colleges and trade schools.

In Tennessee’s Robertson County Schools, McKinney-Vento funding provides students experiencing homelessness with clothing that meets the district’s dress code. And recently, it allowed the district to hire a translator to work specifically with Spanish-speaking homeless families, said Jennifer Dusky, a social worker who also serves as the district’s homeless liaison.

The rural community 30 miles north of Nashville is a major tobacco producer and attracts many migrant families. As that population has grown, the translator who handles requests from across the district couldn’t meet all the needs of homeless families and still get her other duties done, Dusky said.

“It was a need, for sure, to have a dedicated translator,” Dusky said. “Homelessness is not a comfortable thing for anyone to talk about, it’s very vulnerable and very scary. And then, of course, you add in the fact that you’re in a new country, you don’t speak the language. There’s all these fears and they’re very hesitant to talk with us. I totally get that.”

When the district hired a Spanish-speaking translator who had experienced homelessness herself, she helped identify, and provide support to, more homeless children.

“You can almost see the comfort just come over their face whenever they see her and talk to her,” Dusky said.

But when the district got half as much McKinney-Vento funding from the state this year as it has in years past, Dusky got a preview of the tough trade-offs schools nationwide would face if standalone funding went away. Her district had to decide if it could afford to keep the translator and the person who maintains McKinney-Vento records. For at least the next year, the district will dip into its own pocket to do so, but Dusky isn’t sure how long that will last.

“What can our program realistically withstand?” she said. “What can our community support?”

Congress will decide if block grant proposal advances

It is unclear whether Congress will approve the block grant proposal for homeless students and other programs.

The Senate Appropriations committee rejected the block grant in the bipartisan education budget bill they approved Thursday, and kept McKinney-Vento funding at $129 million a year. The House Appropriations committee won’t consider the education portion of the president’s budget until it returns from recess in September.

Some worry that Congress could repeal all or part of the law that authorizes McKinney-Vento funding to make the block grant legal, potentially leaving homeless students with fewer protections. Just a handful of states guarantee homeless students the same main educational rights outlined in federal law; most do not have any spelled out in state law, according to a recent report by SchoolHouse Connection.

Smith in Kansas City, Kansas, worries what that could mean for her students, many of whom stay over the state line in Kansas City, Missouri, because there are no shelters in her community. When that happens, both districts share the cost of transporting the child to school, Smith said, but she’s not sure what would happen if Missouri and Kansas decided to spend their block grants differently.

“If we don’t have something that focuses on this particular population they’ll get overlooked — as they often do already,” Smith said.

Correction: This article has been updated to accurately describe how federal funding for homeless students is determined. It’s based on each state’s share of Title I funds, not on how many homeless students they identify.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

For America’s 250th birthday, Trump champions ‘patriotic education’ in schools again

2025-07-28T22:10:26+00:00

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Jessica Ellison hopes she has a compelling pitch for the Trump administration’s new history and civics initiative connected with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “Yes, George Washington, and also …”

She envisions helping teachers incorporate fascinating but overlooked figures into their lessons, such as Mary Katharine Goddard, a printer for the Continental Congress who bravely published the Declaration and put her name on it. Rural and elementary school teachers, who often get less social studies training, would be the target audience.

“You can’t throw a rock in Virginia without hitting something related to the Revolution, but in Kansas, how do they make that connection?” said Ellison, the executive director of the National Council for History Education. The goal would be “to help teachers find connections to their place, and to think about the principles of the Declaration not just in 1776, but through the present.”

But is that what the Trump administration wants?

President Donald Trump and those close to him see the nation’s semiquincentennial as an opportunity to advance his broader political agenda. When the president kicked off the year-long commemoration earlier this month, he celebrated the passage of the Republican-led tax and spending bill.

At the U.S. Department of Education, the goal of the history and civics grant Ellison is applying for is to cultivate “citizen competency and informed patriotism” with a focus on “the first principles of the Founding” and how they’ve developed over time. Extra points go to applications from independent civics centers, several of which were recently created at public universities with backing from Republican state lawmakers.

To pay for this $14 million program, Trump’s Education Department is taking away money from recipients of a Biden-era history and civics grant that sought to help children from low-income families and other underserved students. That work, the Trump administration now says, was “illegal DEI programming,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The funding swap is a telling example of how the Trump administration is looking to take history and civics education in a new direction, turning away from how the painful parts of American history still reverberate today, and advancing a more patriotic and positive version of America that’s put its most challenging times behind it.

In January, Trump signed an executive order to bring back the 1776 Commission, originally created during his first term, to advise on planning the 250th anniversary and promote “patriotic education.” The order defines that in part as an “examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles.”

The shift also highlights the political tightrope many educators are walking, and the fact that money for this kind of teacher training is hard to find. Several organizations that lost funding, including Ellison’s, submitted a proposal for the 250th anniversary program — meaning they are essentially applying for money that used to be theirs.

The Center for Civic Education, which trains teachers and runs civics education programs for K-12 students, is in that boat. Donna Phillips, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, said while her organization appeals its discontinued funding, she’s trying to stay focused on how federal grants have allowed her nonprofit to understand how kids learn civics and figure out what teachers need for 30 years. This new program could do that, too.

“You really have to set aside what’s happening and then also see: Well, actually, this is an additional opportunity,” Phillips said. “It’s really hard. Every day, we wake up and try to figure out: What can we do today to continue doing the right thing, to continue fulfilling our mission within the new playbook?”

The many tensions in teaching civics and history

Some of these tensions are rooted in education policy shifts and debates over how civics and U.S. history should be taught.

Prior to the 1960s, American high schoolers typically took three civics classes, but now most states require just a semester-long class, if that. When the federal No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002, it tied school performance to math and reading scores, so teacher training tended to focus on those subjects, too.

That’s left teachers feeling less prepared to teach civics and younger Americans less knowledgeable about civics than earlier generations, according to a 2024 brief published by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy, a nonprofit that focuses on civics education.

For Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, a renewed focus on civics instruction

Recent national surveys have found 1 in 3 American adults cannot name all three branches of government, and 1 in 5 can’t name any of the freedoms protected under the First Amendment.

At the same time, some states have added new requirements to teach Black, Latino, Asian American, and Indigenous history. Other states have passed laws that limit what schools can teach about topics like systemic racism and LGBTQ history.

Since 2016, the year Trump won his first presidential election, civics instruction has caused more trepidation in schools, said Tina Ellsworth, an assistant professor at Northwest Missouri State University who focuses on social studies education. National surveys have shown many teachers feel pressure to limit discussions about certain political and social issues in their classrooms, regardless of state laws.

“There’s a lot of administrators that aren’t necessarily overtly supportive” of teaching the civics content and skills students need to engage with the world, Ellsworth said.

Over the last decade, there’s been more focus on teaching students how to build civics skills and media literacy, said Phillips of the Center for Civic Education. But this new grant seems focused more on content knowledge, she said.

The Center for American Civics at Arizona State University submitted a proposal to adapt its teacher training on America’s founding to serve more rural Arizona teachers and those in other states.

Paul Carrese, the center’s director, said that if awarded the grant, he envisions staying true to the center’s approach that teaching “civic knowledge,” or key moments and people in history, “should be first or foundational.” But preparing students to have healthy debates and disagreements, skills he calls “civic virtues,” are also a must.

When people bring up civics, “liberals and conservatives hear different things,” said David Griffith, the associate director of research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, who has studied history and civics standards across the country.

Liberals tend to envision public policy and civic discourse — a more future-oriented view — while conservatives think about respect for traditions and historical moments like the Constitutional Convention, Griffith said.

Young people need both, Griffith said, but striking the right balance is difficult.

“We want to prepare kids for citizenship, and we can’t possibly do that if we never talk about anything that might be in the news,” Griffith said. “But we also don’t want teachers to put their thumbs on the scale and be seen as engaging in activism.”

‘We’re not telling students what to think’

Those tensions have been on display as the Trump administration decides what kinds of history and civics instruction to fund.

Savannah Newhouse, a press secretary for the Education Department, said in an email that the Trump administration ended some Biden-era history and civics education grants after “a thorough review found they were being used toward illegal DEI programming.”

Newhouse did not provide examples. But in a June 18 letter, Murray Bessette, a senior adviser at the department, told organizations whose projects were being canceled that their work conflicted with the department’s “policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education,” violated federal civil rights law, or undermined “the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help.”

The Education Department did not respond to questions about which projects were canceled. But Chalkbeat confirmed that at least 11 of the 25 grants awarded under the Biden administration would end in September, a year early. Several organizations have filed appeals, hoping to get their funding reinstated.

The National Council for History Education, for example, is asking the Trump administration to reconsider taking funds from a project that trained dozens of teachers in the St. Louis area in civil rights education and brought them to historic sites in Missouri and Philadelphia.

Ellison is unsure why that program lost money, while the organization kept its funding for a similar training program in Broward County, Florida that examines the role of St. Augustine, Florida in the slave trade and Spanish colonialism, discusses Indigenous peoples, and involves a visit to Colonial Williamsburg.

In the announcement for the new grant program, the Trump administration expressed interest in “an accurate and honest account of American history” showing “how the United States has worked through profound challenges to its ideals,” such as slavery and segregation.

See Stories, a nonprofit that trains teachers in digital storytelling, is also appealing with a letter of support from Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who saw the organization’s work firsthand when she met students documenting the U.S. Navy’s apology for destroying two Tlingít villages in the late 1800s.

See Stories and over two dozen teachers gathered in Homer, Alaska for a week-long training session in digital storytelling in June 2024.

The program has trained dozens of Alaska teachers to teach their students, many of whom are Alaska Native, how to make short documentaries about what’s happening in their communities and their lives, said Marie Acemah, the nonprofit’s founder and director.

A team of archivists shows teachers how to find resources online, while the See Stories team lays out best practices for inviting elders into classrooms and teaching students how to interview their grandparents as primary sources. The videos are saved and cataloged so other Alaska teachers can use them with their own lessons.

Many teachers moved to Alaska from the lower 48, Acemah said, and may not know all the rules or traditions of the smaller villages where they teach. This gives them “practice and courage,” she said. She hopes the Education Department will decide that’s consistent with its vision.

Filmmaker and documentarian Howdice Brown III (left) works with a teacher in Homer, Alaska at a See Stories training in digital storytelling in June 2024.

“We’re not telling teachers what to think, we’re not telling students what to think, we’re not excluding anybody from our program,” Acemah said. “Our focus is getting students to understand the power of their own voices, of their own histories, and how to physically engage in meaningful and constructive ways.”

Melissa Gibson, an associate professor of educational policy and leadership at Marquette University, is also appealing the Education Department’s decision to stop funding the Milwaukee Roots initiative. Teachers meet with scholars and neighborhood experts to learn about different parts of the city, and how students can conduct a historical inquiry, an approach emphasized in Wisconsin social studies standards.

At the same time, Gibson is applying for the new 250th anniversary funding, in conjunction with Marquette’s civics center. In her proposal, she tried to combine what the grant asked for with her team’s focus on place-based civics instruction and lifting up overlooked voices.

The students Gibson works with, many of whom are incarcerated, often feel like government has failed them, there’s no difference between the two main political parties, and that nothing ever changes in their city or state, she said.

“What’s missing from those complaints is the understanding that in fact, you, as a citizen, have the power to improve those structures,” Gibson said.

Learning about America’s 250th birthday could help them see both the “poetry of our founding documents” and “people’s lived reality” — and envision what it might take to make those the same.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump White House to release some after-school money but billions for education still frozen

2025-07-18T20:43:03+00:00

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Federal funds for before- and after-school programs that were frozen for weeks will start flowing to states, a senior official with the Office of Management and Budget confirmed Friday.

The budget office has finished reviewing the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program and will release $1.3 billion on Monday, according to a copy of the email sent to states by the U.S. Department of Education on Friday.

That money was put on hold after the Trump administration announced it was reviewing nearly $7 billion in education funds that schools expected to receive at the beginning of July.

The move will bring some relief to school districts that have been scrambling to figure out how to address sudden budget gaps, and whether they should move forward with plans to hire certain staff or run certain programs.

But school leaders and public education advocates caution they are not out of the woods yet, as billions more in federal funds, including money meant to boost academic offerings in schools and help the children of migrant farmworkers, are still on hold.

“For families and communities that want to see their children attend schools with well-trained teachers, with support for English learners, with well-rounded curricular offerings, the fight is not over,” said Sasha Pudelski, the director of advocacy at The School Superintendents Association, which has been lobbying for the full release of the frozen funds.

The decision to release the funds comes two days after 10 Republican senators, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, sent a letter to Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, calling for the release of the funds. It was a rare example of Republicans openly criticizing the administration and spoke to how widely the cuts were felt.

On Friday, Capito said the release of the after-school funds was “in direct response” to the Republican senators’ letter in a post on the social media site X.

Two dozen states had sued the Trump administration seeking to pry the funds loose, and several Democrats in Congress and a group of Democratic governors had also urged the release of the funds.

In a press release, Jodi Grant, the executive director of Afterschool Alliance, which represents after-school providers and programs across the country, said that the release of the funds had brought “an enormous sigh of relief.”

But Grant warned that disbursement delays had already “caused massive chaos and harm, with summer learning programs abruptly shutting down and a large number of afterschool programs cancelling plans to open in the fall.” In other cases, programs fell behind on hiring staff, drawing up agreements with schools, and registering kids for the new school year.

Erik Peterson, Afterschool Alliance’s senior vice president of policy, said in an interview that the funding disruption had hit rural communities especially hard, and some programs had closed unexpectedly in Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah. Now, programs will have to put in extra work to rebuild trust with families and communities whose services were disrupted, he said.

“A lot of that damage potentially has been done,” Peterson said.

The Trump administration previously said it was looking into after-school and other grant programs because many had “been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”

The budget office official said Friday that “guardrails have been put in place to ensure these funds are not used in violation” of any of President Donald Trump’s executive orders. States will have to certify compliance with the U.S. Constitution and several federal anti-discrimination laws, and the Education Department will continue to review spending to ensure compliance, the email to states said.

Needing to comply with federal civil rights laws to receive funds isn’t new, but the Trump administration has advanced new interpretations of those laws to bar many common practices designed to make education programs more equitable. Democratic-led states sued over a similar Trump policy requiring schools to certify they are not engaging in certain diversity, equity, and inclusion practices to get federal funds.

Federal officials warned states that using funds on “unallowable activities” could result in the loss of funds. Some state education departments are reviewing the certification requirement, Peterson said.

This story has been updated to include additional information from the Trump administration and comments from Erik Peterson of the Afterschool Alliance and Sasha Pudelski of The School Superintendents Association.

Colorado bureau chief Melanie Asmar contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.

Head Start preschools to bar undocumented children under new Trump rule

2025-07-11T00:28:28+00:00

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Undocumented children will no longer qualify for federally funded preschool through the Head Start program under a major policy shift the Trump administration announced Thursday.

In a news release, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was rescinding a nearly 30-year-old interpretation of federal law issued under President Bill Clinton that allowed undocumented immigrants to access certain programs because they were not considered “federal public benefits.”

As President Donald Trump pursues his anti-immigrant agenda, this change may be the most direct and far-reaching effort to target children after his attempts to end birthright citizenship. His administration has also ramped up immigration enforcement and deportations, withheld funding for English learners, and threatened to punish states that offer in-state tuition to undocumented college students.

Administration officials have said they hope many immigrants will “self-deport” if the United States makes life here more uncomfortable. Health and Human Services leaders cast the change as a way to protect benefits for Americans.

“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release. “Today’s action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.”

Early childhood education advocates, meanwhile, condemned the change as violating both the spirit and the letter of the 1965 law that authorized Head Start. They also warned the change could scare away eligible families.

“This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children,” Yasmina Vinci, the executive director of the National Head Start Association, a nonprofit that represents Head Start staff and families, said in a written statement. “Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as ‘illegal.’”

The change is also at odds with how the Supreme Court has treated K-12 education. In the landmark Plyler v. Doe decision from 1982, the justices ruled that children have a right to a free public education regardless of immigration status. However, the courts have upheld laws restricting immigrants’ access to welfare benefits.

Head Start provided preschool to over 544,000 children from low-income families, according to the latest federal data from the 2022-23 school year, while Early Head Start served more than 186,000 infants, toddlers, and expectant parents.

The program, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has reached 40 million children but has recently faced a number of challenges, from federal staff layoffs to threats of eliminating the program.

Head Start will now be considered a public benefit, the Trump administration said, because it offers services that are similar to welfare. Officials said the change aligns with Trump’s executive orders, including a February order titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.”

“While Head Start provides for school readiness, it also provides low-income children and their families with ‘health, educational, nutritional, and social and other services, that are determined based on family needs assessment,’” federal officials wrote in a notice announcing the change. “Further, it may serve as child care for parents of young children.”

Classifying Head Start as welfare, rather than education, could be a Trump administration strategy to avoid having to address whether the protections extended to undocumented children in Plyler apply here, said Nate Ela, an assistant professor of law at Temple University, in an email.

Reflecting Trump’s America First agenda, Health and Human Services officials said in their press release that Head Start will be “reserved for American citizens from now on.”

But a spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families clarified that U.S. citizen children and “qualified” immigrant children would be eligible for Head Start. Under federal law, that includes legal permanent residents, children who’ve been granted asylum, refugees, and children with humanitarian parole.

In its statement, the National Head Start Association said providers were alarmed that programs would have to check the citizenship or immigration status of children before they could enroll. The law that governs Head Start has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition to enroll, the organization said, and “attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families.”

It is unclear exactly how the new rules will be enforced. Guidance based on the new legal interpretation is forthcoming, the Administration for Children and Families spokesperson said.

“Are they going to monitor us when they come out for their federal review?” asked Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, the executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association. “Will there be something attached to our grant that we have to certify?”

The latest version of the law governing who is eligible for Head Start says nothing about immigration status, but it does say that the program can use federal funds to train staff, counsel children, and provide other services that are “necessary to address the challenges of children from immigrant, refugee, and asylee families, homeless children, children in foster care, limited English proficient children, children of migrant or seasonal farmworker families, [and] children from families in crisis.”

The law says that children who are experiencing homelessness or whose families have incomes below the federal poverty line qualify. The Migrant Seasonal Head Start program also guarantees child care for the children of farm workers and seasonal workers.

This is not the first attempt to roll back educational rights for immigrant children and families. A number of Republican state legislators have backed bills that would limit enrollment for immigrant children or track their immigration status in ways that could intimidate families. So far, none has been successful. Meanwhile, the author of a brief from the conservative Heritage Foundation that called on states to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public school now works in the Education Department.

Restricting Head Start access could have ripple effects

Federal officials estimated that the Head Start change would free up $374 million a year for U.S. citizens and qualified immigrants to access Head Start, which represents about 3% of the program’s annual budget in recent years.

But keeping children out of Head Start could lead to more costs down the road for public schools, advocates warned. Kindergartners who don’t go to preschool may need more help with basics like learning their ABCs, colors, and how to work with classmates. They also may have missed out on health screenings.

“We’re really shortchanging our community by cutting them off from strong early childhood programs that are going to put them on the right path to be successful in K-12 schools where they have a guaranteed right to attend,” said Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network and deputy director of Californians Together, groups that advocate for immigrant rights in education.

There are typically many more children in poverty who qualify for Head Start than the program has funding to serve. A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found, for example, that for every 100 young children in poverty, there were typically 28 Head Start seats, with much larger gaps in some states.

Keeping out immigrant children wouldn’t necessarily close those gaps. The main factor limiting Head Start seats is a lack of trained teachers, said Diane Schilder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank.

“A lot of programs are having challenges hiring teachers in preschool and infant-toddler classrooms who meet the requirements because the wages are not adequate,” Schilder said.

Low-income families are less likely to have documents proving their children are citizens, Schilder said, and anti-immigrant sentiment can scare away even eligible families from applying. Parents are less likely to work when they don’t have access to child care. The effects of these changes would be felt most strongly in urban areas and in communities with a large agricultural workforce.

Head Start providers worry that verifying children’s immigration status will create more administrative work and could make it harder for all families to enroll. Federal officials estimated the cost of assembling documents and reviewing paperwork would be an additional $21 million a year.

And there would be more transition costs to change Head Start protocols, the federal notice stated.

Federal officials said the change would take effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register. It has not been published, but has been submitted, the Trump administration said. The public will have 30 days to submit comments.

For now, Heather Frenz, the executive director of the Colorado Head Start Association, said her organization is telling Head Start providers to wait for further instructions before un-enrolling any children.

Reconsidering the eligibility or enrollment of children who are already attending Head Start would be expensive and time-consuming, Frenz said. The process involves everything from measuring children’s height and weight to drawing up individual plans.

And if undocumented children miss out on preschool and other services Head Start provides, Frenz said it could “put a lot of strain” on other public entities when those children get older.

“They may not speak English or have never seen a dentist,” Frenz said. “That’s going to be a heavy load on the public school education system.”

Chalkbeat New York reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney, Chalkbeat Philadelphia bureau chief Carly Sitrin, Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea, and Colorado bureau chief Melanie Asmar contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah atnrami@chalkbeat.org.

How Trump’s sweeping tax and domestic policy bill will affect children and schools

2025-07-03T18:33:47+00:00

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Republicans in Congress have approved President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and domestic policy bill that will ramp up spending on immigration enforcement and make deep cuts to social safety net programs, with major ramifications for children and schools.

The bill, which the president is expected to sign by Friday, slashes spending on Medicaid, which provides health insurance to some 37 million children and is a critical revenue source for schools. It also limits eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides food assistance to over 13 million children and makes kids automatically eligible for free meals at school.

The legislation significantly raises spending on immigration enforcement, which will likely translate to more immigration arrests and deportations. The president’s deportation campaign has already left schools working overtime to assure families it’s safe to send their children to school.

“When you take it all together it’s kind of like an assault on children and families policy-wise,” said Megan Curran, the director of policy at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. “We’re going to see that the effects reverberate well beyond what we’re even understanding” right now, she said, “and schools are going to be on the front lines.”

The nearly 900-page bill also creates a new voucher-like program that will pay for private school scholarships — a major victory for school choice advocates who have successfully expanded similar programs in several states, but have previously failed to enact a nationwide version. States will be allowed to opt out, however, and it’s likely many Democrat-led states will.

Here is more on how what the president calls the “big, beautiful bill” is likely to affect children and schools:

Medicaid cuts will hurt school budgets

Trump’s policy bill makes historic cuts to Medicaid, which is the fourth-largest source of federal funding for schools. If millions of children lost their health insurance, it would undoubtedly reduce funding for schools, though it’s unclear by how much.

“Cutting Medicaid is equivalent to cutting school district budgets,” said Jessie Mandle, the national program director at the nonprofit Healthy Schools Campaign. “School districts are very much aware of how important Medicaid dollars are to serve students with disabilities, address the youth mental crisis, [and] address students’ behavioral health needs.”

In March, Mandle’s organization and other education groups surveyed 1,400 school staffers and officials from across the U.S. about how they rely on Medicaid. Around 9 in 10 respondents used Medicaid to pay the salaries of school health staff, such as school nurses, psychologists, and speech therapists. A little under half relied on Medicaid to buy assistive technology and other specialized equipment for students with disabilities.

Cuts to Medicaid would likely require schools to lay off staff and make cuts elsewhere in their budgets, the survey found.

And schools in rural communities, where a higher share of kids are enrolled in Medicaid and schools often play a big role in providing health care, are likely to feel the cuts more acutely.

SNAP cuts could limit free school meals

The federal legislation makes a series of changes to the SNAP program, including requiring more parents of school-aged children and teens aging out of foster care to work, scrapping eligibility for refugees and people who’ve been granted asylum, and raising how much states have to kick in.

The changes could result in hundreds of thousands of parents losing their SNAP benefits, which could have ripple effects on schools — though earlier provisions that would have more directly targeted the school meal program were stripped out of the bill.

When kids are enrolled in SNAP, they automatically qualify for free breakfast and lunch at school. And when a high share of kids are enrolled in SNAP, it’s more financially viable for schools to provide free meals to all students. That has a number of academic and social benefits for kids.

If families fall off the SNAP rolls, they may not realize they have to fill out paperwork at their child’s school to get free meals. And if fewer kids qualify for free school meals, schools will get a lower reimbursement from the federal government, which will make it harder to cover the cost of providing free meals to all kids.

“The cuts to SNAP that are currently proposed will increase hunger in homes and in classrooms,” said Erin Hysom, the senior child nutrition policy analyst for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center. “It’s really going to be this kind of double whammy for families.”

Boost for immigration enforcement likely to affect schools

The president’s policy bill includes $31 billion in additional funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire more agents and cover the cost of deportations. The legislation also includes $13 billion in grants for states and local communities to assist with immigration enforcement.

An increase in immigration enforcement is likely to put additional burdens on school communities, many of which have already spent time and resources tending to students whose family members were arrested, advocating on behalf of students who were detained, and adding transportation and safety measures to assuage the fears of immigrant parents.

Recent research from Stanford University found that raids carried out by the Trump administration earlier this year in California’s Central Valley notably increased daily absences from school, especially for younger children. And earlier research has found that immigration raids have significant effects on children’s physical and mental health, as well as on broader school climate.

New voucher-like program will pay for private schooling

Tucked into the bill is the creation of a tax-credit scholarship program that will pay for private school tuition. Individuals can knock $1,700 off their tax bill if they donate that amount to an organization that awards scholarships to kids who attend private school.

The inclusion is a win for private school choice advocates who have long championed an idea like this.

But the program will be optional for states, after the Senate parliamentarian ruled states could not be required to participate. That will probably curb the program’s impact, because it’s unlikely that Democrat-led states — where officials have vociferously opposed using public money for private schools — will opt in.

It is unclear exactly how much the federal voucher-like program will cost, as there is no cap on the amount of tax credit payouts. (An earlier House version would have capped those costs at around $5 billion to $6 billion a year.)

Many states have their own tax-credit scholarship or voucher program.

Pell Grants now available for workforce training

Starting with the 2026-27 school year, students from low-income backgrounds who’d normally qualify for a federal Pell Grant to pay for college can get aid for short-term workforce training.

Known as a Workforce Pell Grant, the money could be spent on training programs that last eight to 15 weeks and lead to some kind of credential or academic credit toward a degree or certificate program. The idea has gotten bipartisan support in Congress, and has been endorsed by both Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

The training would need to prepare students for jobs or industries that are high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand — in line with the federal Perkins Career and Technical Education Act — and governors and state school boards would decide which programs qualify.

The Congressional Budget Office expects the program will be relatively small to start: Just $17 million in the first year and $20 million the following year.

Child tax credit bump excludes many low-income families

The bill increases the size of the credit from $2,000 to $2,200 a year, but does nothing to ensure more low-income families can benefit.

That means the child tax credit is actually “less generous” in today’s dollars than when the $2,000 credit began in 2018, because it was never adjusted for inflation, said Curran of Columbia University.

A July analysis by Curran and others found that 19 million children are in families who would get only some, or none, of the revised tax credit because they don’t earn enough money. That’s up from 17 million children who don’t fully benefit from the current child tax credit.

The final result is “head-scratching,” Curran said, after all of the bipartisan enthusiasm to expand and increase the child tax credit.

During the pandemic, the federal government temporarily raised the credit to $3,000 per child and $3,600 for younger children, and made it available to many more families with low or no income. There’s solid evidence that helped many families stay on top of household bills and pay for school supplies and other items for their children.

But the bill Trump is about to sign does not include those changes.

“It’s a huge pendulum swing,” Curran said. “The child tax credit doesn’t really do anything extra for families.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration threatens sex ed grant funding over gender identity in lessons

2025-07-02T21:26:49+00:00

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For decades, transgender teens rarely saw themselves reflected in lessons about sexual health.

That’s a problem, youth advocates say, because trans youth really need accurate information: They’re at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections and experiencing intimate partner violence.

In recent years, some health educators have worked to make sex education more inclusive of various gender identities. That could mean using gender-neutral language or incorporating trans people into the scenarios students learn about.

But the Trump administration, which supports the view that there are only two sexes, male and female, wants to put a stop to that.

On June 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told California that the state must remove all mentions of gender identity and trans people from the materials used in its federally funded sex ed program. Known as the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP, the program targets teens and pre-teens at high risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

The materials cited by the Trump administration include “Rights, Respect, Responsibility,” “Making Proud Choices!” and “Teen Talk” for middle and high school. A spokesperson for Health Connected, the maker of “Teen Talk,” declined to comment on Tuesday. Advocates for Youth, the nonprofit behind “Rights, Respect, Responsibility” and ETR, the creator of “Making Proud Choices!” did not respond to requests for comment.

California has 60 days to comply, or it risks losing a $6 million-plus federal grant.

“California was not only in violation of PREP’s terms but using federal funds to promote radical gender ideology and expose children to inappropriate, irrelevant content,” a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services department told Chalkbeat in an email.

More states could face similar demands. The HHS spokesperson told Chalkbeat that the department is actively reviewing the materials used by all PREP grantees, a list that includes nearly every state. And at least 23 other states have used “Making Proud Choices!” in their federally funded sex ed programs.

PREP represents a relatively small slice of sex education happening across the country. But some worry it’s a slippery slope from demanding California make these changes to ordering schools to remove gender identity and trans people from any curriculum purchased with federal funds. Already the Trump administration is waging war with several states over their inclusion of trans girls on women’s sports teams and has threatened to withhold federal funds from schools that teach “gender ideology.”

Beth Deines, a spokesperson for California’s public health department, said the agency is still reviewing the Trump administration’s demands, but that the state’s PREP uses models that are effective and rooted in evidence. California’s instructional materials are medically accurate, comprehensive, and age-appropriate, Deines added, and were “federally pre-approved” prior to the Trump administration.

Advocates for LGBTQ youth, meanwhile, worry that potential changes to California’s curriculum could deprive trans youth of critical information for their physical and mental health and further ostracize them at a time when they’re being targeted on many fronts.

If California does strip out the references to gender identity, it would affect not only trans kids, but their classmates, too, said Lisa Andersen, a historian who co-authored the book “Touchy Subject,” which chronicles decades of debates over sex education in American schools.

“We need to create an environment in which the school helps the student flourish but also moves them toward being able to be a citizen in a diverse society, and I think it’s really hard to do that if you’re not acknowledging any particular group.” Andersen said. “It’s simply hurtful to write people out of the curriculum.”

Why the federal government funds sex education

Congress created the Personal Responsibility Education Program in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act. Federal officials awarded $41 million to states for the program over the most recent three-year funding cycle.

The program is designed to reach young people who are at a higher risk of getting pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted infection. And a large-scale national evaluation found that PREP does successfully boost the share of young people who say they will use a condom or birth control if they’re sexually active.

California’s program educates 13,000 young people each year, state officials say. Its target audience includes teens experiencing homelessness, youth in foster care, alternative school students, teens in the juvenile justice system, and LGBTQ youth. In the state’s most recent data collection, 2.5% of participants identified as trans or nonbinary.

What complicates compliance with the Trump administration’s demand is that stripping out references to gender identity and trans youth would contradict California’s sex education law, which requires public schools to use materials that teach about gender identity and gender expression. Some California schools use the same texts that were singled out by the Trump administration last month. And advocates for inclusive curriculum say it’s not as simple as making a few edits, because this instruction is woven into all the lessons.

A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the office continues to review all of the president’s actions for compliance with the law, but said the office could not comment on any potential litigation. A California Department of Education spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration said at first it decided to conduct a medical accuracy review of California’s PREP curriculum. But federal health officials changed course, they said, when they spotted “gender ideology” in the materials, which they said falls outside the scope of the law governing PREP.

The law is silent on whether programs should teach about gender identity. But it includes other language that says the instruction should be presented in the appropriate cultural context for target audiences, which include “culturally under-represented youth populations.”

The language flagged by the Trump administration in the materials and teaching guides includes several explanations of gender identity and what it means to be transgender. Some examples include:

“All people have a gender identity. An adjective used to describe a person whose gender identity is incongruent with (or does not ‘match’) the biological sex they were assigned at birth is ‘transgender.’ … Other gender identities may include non-binary, agender, bigender, genderfluid, and genderqueer.”
“Gender identity is your inner sense of your gender—Do you feel like a guy? Do you feel like a girl? Do you feel like something different than a guy or a girl? Often gender identity matches a person’s body— someone with a girl’s body feels like a girl on the inside or someone with a boy’s body feels like a boy on the inside—but not always. Transgender is when a person’s inner feelings about gender identity don’t match the body.”

Talking about gender identity and trans identity in sex education is still fairly new, dating back mostly to the 2000s, Andersen found in her research. That helps explain why there’s still healthy debate about how best to teach those topics, Andersen said.

But the current political climate is making it especially difficult for schools and health educators to navigate.

“We don’t have a long history of working this out,” she said. “And we’re trying to figure it out during perhaps the most politically volatile period we’ve had in the last 100 years where we’re primed and ready to disagree with each other.”

This story was updated to reflect that the three curriculum makers for PREP in California declined or did not respond to requests for comment.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration holds back nearly $7 billion in K-12 funds, sparking outcry from schools

2025-07-02T16:09:22+00:00

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Schools are scrambling to plan for what could become a massive budget hole after the Trump administration said Monday it would not release nearly $7 billion in K-12 education funds that had been expected to go out July 1.

The withheld funds, which were approved by Congress earlier this year, include all $890 million meant to help English learners develop their language skills and $375 million to provide academic support to the children of migrant farmworkers, according to an email that was sent to states by the U.S. Department of Education and obtained by Education Week.

The money being held back also includes $2.2 billion in Title II funds that support teacher training, $1.4 billion for before- and after-school programs, and $1.3 billion in funding for academic enrichment programs, such as STEM and college and career counseling.

Several states, Democratic lawmakers, and education advocacy groups are calling on the Trump administration to release the money, calling the move an illegal act of impoundment. The Education Department referred inquiries to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which said Wednesday that the move was part of an ongoing programmatic review of education funding and that no decisions had been made yet.

But the Office of Management and Budget spokesperson also said its initial findings “have shown that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”

The spokesperson said the office had found examples in which New York schools used English language acquisition funds to “promote illegal immigrant advocacy organizations” while Washington state used funds to “direct illegal immigrants towards scholarships intended for American students.” In another instance, the spokesperson wrote, school improvement funds were used to hold a seminar on “queer resistance in the arts.”

The office did not provide documentation for its findings, and a spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for that documentation.

Congress had previously approved this funding as part of a continuing budget resolution in March, which was supposed to keep K-12 education funding mostly level for the 2025-26 school year. But the Trump administration told states on Monday that it has not yet decided how this money will be allocated, and won’t send funding notices until it completes a review, the email obtained by Education Week stated.

In a Tuesday press conference, California education officials said the Trump administration’s letter indicated the money was being held back to ensure the funds were spent in accordance with the president’s priorities. As it has in other recent instances, California will “continue to pursue all available legal remedies to the Trump administration’s unlawful withholding of federal funds appropriated by Congress,” Superintendent Tony Thurmond told reporters.

The unreleased funding aligns with many of the K-12 budget cuts the Trump administration proposed to make in fiscal 2026 — cuts that Congress has yet to vote on and which shouldn’t affect schools’ bottom lines until the 2026-27 school year.

In a written statement, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, the vice chair of the Senate appropriations committee who also sits on the Senate education committee, said the funding holdup had forced schools to delay hiring staff and pause initiatives for students.

“Local school districts can’t afford to wait out lengthy court proceedings to get the federal funding they’re owed — nor can they make up the shortfall, especially not at the drop of a pin,” Murray wrote.

Ray Hart, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents many of the nation’s large urban districts, said schools were counting on this money to pay teachers and principals, provide summer school, and cover school safety costs.

Holding back the after-school funding affects nearly 10,000 after-school programs, said Jodi Grant, the executive director of Afterschool Alliance, and has left many worried they will have to close.

In a Tuesday press conference, advocates for immigrant children and English learners sounded the alarm about how withholding Title III funds would hurt schools’ ability to hire translators and staff to work with multilingual students and host workshops for immigrant families.

Some summer programs that rely on Title III funds to train school staff were put on hold, said Susanne Pena, an assistant teaching professor at Florida International University. (The Trump administration gutted the Education Department office that used to oversee Title III earlier this year.)

“Families who do not speak English could be cut off from schools and the support system that they need in order to help their students be successful,” said Anabolena DeGenna, the superintendent of Oxnard School District in southern California.

This story has been updated to include a comment from the Office of Management and Budget.

National reporting intern Norah Rami contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Las escuelas en el epicentro de la campaña de deportaciones de Trump se preparan para el verano

2025-06-27T22:16:17+00:00

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A comienzos de junio, la tensión se hizo sentir en el Complejo Educativo de Santee, en Los Ángeles, después de que agentes de inmigración allanaron un depósito de ropa de “fast fashion”, ubicado a solo una milla de distancia.

La tensión se mantuvo luego de que un estudiante se enterara de que su padre y su abuelo habían sido detenidos en las redadas de ese día. Mientras esperaba que alguien viniera a recogerlo, el personal de la escuela estuvo a su lado y se aseguró de que su familia tuviera acceso a los recursos disponibles.

Mientras la escuela, con 1,600 estudiantes, se preparaba para el día de la graduación, la directora Violeta Ruiz respondía mensajes de estudiantes preocupados por Instagram y enviaba notas de voz para asegurar a las familias que asistir a la ceremonia era seguro.

Y cuando comenzaron los programas de verano a mediados de junio, Ruiz se aseguró de que los estudiantes encontraran en ella un rostro familiar al llegar, aunque técnicamente no forma parte del personal de la escuela de verano.

“Me aseguré de estar afuera porque todos los niños me conocen”, dijo Ruiz. “Algunos estaban un poco inquietos, pero en cuanto entraron por nuestras puertas, ya estaban listos para comenzar”.

La experiencia de Ruiz refleja las medidas que han tenido que tomar las escuelas ubicadas en el epicentro de la campaña de deportaciones masivas del presidente Donald Trump para contrarrestar el miedo que se ha extendido en sus comunidades. Escuelas como Santee, donde uno de cada cinco estudiantes está aprendiendo inglés, están invirtiendo tiempo y recursos para mantener a los niños en la escuela y apoyar a familias en crisis.

El Distrito Unificado de Los Ángeles abrió 100 nuevas sedes de escuela de verano tras las redadas, con el objetivo de reducir el tiempo que estudiantes y familias pasan en traslados, ya que en esos trayectos podrían encontrarse con agentes de inmigración.

La situación es crítica: una investigación reciente de la Universidad de Stanford reveló que las redadas de inmigración en California han contribuido a agravar una crisis de ausentismo escolar que ya es alarmante.

Lo que está pasando en Los Ángeles también demuestra por qué es tan importante que los líderes escolares de todo el país mantengan comunicación con las familias durante el verano, señaló Alejandra Vázquez Baur, directora de la Red Nacional de Estudiantes Recién Llegados (National Newcomer Network), una coalición que brinda apoyo a estudiantes inmigrantes que acaban de llegar al país.

Muchas comunidades escolares están sintiendo el impacto del aumento en los operativos de inmigración, señaló Vázquez Baur, desde Charlotte, Carolina del Norte —donde un padre fue detenido cerca de la fila para dejar a los estudiantes en la escuela— hasta la ciudad de Nueva York, donde un estudiante de secundaria fue detenido durante una audiencia migratoria de rutina.

“Es especialmente importante en este momento que los líderes escolares den un paso al frente y se pronuncien sobre este tema, que se comuniquen con las familias y expliquen qué están haciendo de forma diferente para garantizar que las escuelas estén protegidas durante la próxima semana y las que siguen”, dijo Vázquez Baur. “Estas experiencias influirán en la decisión de muchas familias sobre si volverán o no en otoño”.

El peor escenario posible, dijo, sería que los padres evaluaran la situación este verano y decidieran que: “Es demasiado arriesgado mandarte de vuelta”.

Por qué el verano es un momento clave para conectar con las familias inmigrantes

En el primer día de la presidencia de Trump, funcionarios federales revocaron una política de larga data que reconocía a escuelas, iglesias, hospitales y otros espacios que brindan servicios esenciales como “zonas sensibles”, donde las operaciones de inmigración estaban restringidas. Desde entonces no ha habido redadas dentro de las escuelas, pero las acciones llevadas a cabo en sus alrededores han dejado con miedo a muchas comunidades escolares.

En Los Ángeles, por ejemplo, las redadas recientes coincidieron con los preparativos del Distrito Unificado de Los Ángeles para celebrar cientos de ceremonias de graduación y de promoción de grado. Ante el temor que generaron, el distrito sumó presencia de policías escolares en algunos eventos y debió habilitar transmisiones por Zoom para las familias que no se animaban a asistir en persona. Como resultado, algunos padres —cuyos hijos eran los primeros en terminar la secundaria— no pudieron estar presentes para acompañar ese momento tan significativo.

En una conferencia de prensa, el superintendente del Distrito Unificado de Los Ángeles, Alberto Carvalho, dijo que esperaba que la ampliación de la oferta de clases de verano demostrara a las familias inmigrantes que el distrito está comprometido a brindarles apoyo.

Los estudiantes jugaron dentro de la biblioteca durante un programa de verano del Distrito Unificado de Los Ángeles en julio de 2024.

Además de ampliar la cantidad de sitios de escuela verano —de 220 a 320—, Carvalho dijo que el distrito ofrecería transporte a cualquier niño cuya familia lo solicitara, con el objetivo de reducir el tiempo que madres, padres o tutores pasan en tránsito. También se ofrecería la opción de asistir a la escuela de verano de manera virtual para quienes tengan miedo de asistir en persona.

“Vamos a dedicar todos los recursos necesarios para hacer todo lo posible por estabilizar su situación y devolverles cierta normalidad, pese a los desafíos que estén enfrentando”, afirmó Carvalho.

Todavía no se sabe con certeza cuánto costará la expansión del programa de escuela de verano, explicó Carvalho. El costo dependerá de cuántos estudiantes se presenten en los nuevos centros y de cuántos empleados adicionales haya que contratar. El programa de escuela de verano del distrito ya era una operación de gran escala, con unos 90,000 estudiantes inscritos en programas académicos tradicionales y otros 40,000 participando en actividades enriquecedoras, como campamentos de matemáticas o natación.

“Esta es una acción sin precedentes en este distrito escolar. Es, una vez más, es la inversión adecuada, en el momento justo, para los estudiantes que más lo necesitan”, afirmó Carvalho.

El Distrito Unificado de Los Ángeles organiza un amplio programa de verano con actividades académicas y de enriquecimiento para decenas de miles de estudiantes.

Si bien es fundamental que las escuelas no prometan más de lo que pueden ofrecer en cuanto a su capacidad de protección, señaló Vázquez Baur, este verano pueden informar con claridad a las familias cuáles son sus protocolos ante la presencia de un agente de inmigración en el establecimiento y qué recursos están disponibles si un estudiante o un familiar es detenido fuera de la escuela.

Los directores escolares pueden garantizar que el personal recientemente incorporado reciba la capacitación necesaria para saber cómo actuar ante la presencia de agentes federales de inmigración. También pueden invitar a organizaciones comunitarias de confianza a participar en las actividades de verano, con el objetivo de brindar mayor tranquilidad a las familias. Además, es recomendable que las escuelas revisen y actualicen sus protocolos, especialmente si durante el verano detectan nuevas tácticas de control migratorio.

Por encima de todo, señaló, es fundamental que las escuelas mantengan una comunicación fluida y constante con las familias. Si durante el año escolar se enviaban correos electrónicos semanales, es importante sostener esa práctica, remarcó Vázquez Baur. Y si durante el verano la aplicación de las leyes migratorias afecta a la comunidad escolar en su conjunto, también es clave reconocer esa realidad y abordarla de manera abierta.

“La comunicación no debería interrumpirse durante el verano”, afirmó. “Cuando las familias no tienen información, el miedo crece todavía más.”

Para Ruiz, directora de Santee, mantener informados a los estudiantes y sus familias ha sido clave para conservar la confianza.

En febrero, por ejemplo, cuando agentes de inmigración realizaron sus primeros operativos en Los Ángeles, algunos estudiantes de secundaria de Ruiz comenzaron a salir de la escuela en señal de protesta.

Después de conversar con los estudiantes y el personal, la escuela decidió organizar una asamblea para ofrecer un espacio seguro donde pudieran expresar sus emociones. Los jóvenes presentaron pequeñas obras teatrales sobre qué hacer si un agente los detenía y cómo apoyarse mutuamente si alguien querido fuera detenido. Se enseñaron entre ellos a ser solidarios y a defenderse, dijo Ruiz.

En las semanas siguientes, Ruiz se reunió con madres, padres y personas cuidadoras para asegurarse de que entendieran cuál sería la respuesta de la escuela en caso de una operación migratoria cerca del campus. A los estudiantes se les entregaron “tarjetas rojas” con información sobre sus derechos constitucionales. Algunos docentes colgaron mariposas en las puertas de sus aulas —creadas por el grupo estudiantil MEChA— como gesto de apoyo hacia los estudiantes indocumentados.

Después de que algunas personas del personal diseñaran camisetas con mariposas para usar en la escuela, muchas otras —entre docentes, trabajadores y estudiantes— comenzaron a sumarse usando su propia ropa con mariposas.

Ruiz considera que es una forma silenciosa pero clara de decirles a los estudiantes: Estamos aquí para ustedes.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es reportera senior de educación a nivel nacional y está radicada en Chicago. Puedes contactarla en kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Maryland district must let parents opt kids out of lessons on religious grounds, Supreme Court rules

2025-06-27T18:09:51+00:00

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Parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, have the right to opt their children out of lessons involving a set of books featuring LGBTQ characters and themes if the materials do not align with the families’ religious beliefs, the Supreme Court decided Friday.

The 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor represents a win for the burgeoning parental rights movement, religious liberty advocates, and the Trump administration, which appeared before the high court to lend support to the parents’ case.

The Supreme Court ruled that the parents, who came from Muslim, Roman Catholic, and other Christian backgrounds, would likely be able to prove these books presented a burden on their faith and they should be allowed to opt out of the books while a federal appeals court continues to review their case. Previously, the school district had told the parents that its policy did not allow for opt-outs.

“The Board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive’ storybooks, combined with its decision to withhold notice to parents and to forbid opt outs, substantially interferes with the religious development of petitioners’ children and imposes the kind of burden on religious exercise that Yoder [an earlier Supreme Court ruling] found unacceptable,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote on behalf of the majority. “The books are unmistakably normative. They are designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.”

"Prince & Knight" is one of the LGBTQ-inclusive books that was added to Montgomery County Public Schools' English curriculum.

“Many Americans, like the parents in this case, believe that biological sex reflects divine creation, that sex and gender are inseparable, and that children should be encouraged to accept their sex and to live accordingly,” Alito continued. “The storybooks, however, suggest that it is hurtful, and perhaps even hateful, to hold the view that gender is inextricably bound with biological sex.”

In a dissent joined by the two other liberal justices, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the ruling threatened the role public schools play in teaching children of all faiths and backgrounds how to coexist in a multicultural society.

“That experience is critical to our Nation’s civic vitality,” Sotomayor wrote. “Yet it will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs.”

Advocates for inclusive curriculum and LGBTQ youth worry the ruling will lay the groundwork for parents across the country to opt their children out of any instruction that they say conflicts with their religious teachings.

That could require teachers to spend more time notifying parents about what they’re teaching, devising alternative assignments, finding space and supervision for children who opt out, and catching kids up if they miss other content during an opt-out.

Lawyers and scholars in the parents’ camp have said they do not think giving religious parents the right to opt their children out of lessons will dramatically change public education.

Most states allow kids to skip lessons related to sex education or human sexuality, while Texas already permits parents to opt their children out of any lesson for religious or moral reasons.

And a recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that nearly half of K-12 teachers support parents’ rights to opt their children out of learning about sexual orientation and gender identity at school — suggesting they wouldn’t be averse to working with families to accommodate such requests.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the ruling on social media. Eric Baxter, a senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty who represented the parents in this case, said in a written statement that the ruling represented “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America” and “made clear that parents — not government — have the final say in how their children are raised.”

Montgomery County school officials and board members said in a joint statement that while the decision was not what they hoped for, they would determine next steps and “navigate this moment with integrity and purpose — guided, as always, by our shared values of learning, relationships, respect, excellence, and equity.”

Critics have said this ruling could open the door for many more opt-outs on religious grounds. During oral arguments, several liberal justices pointed out that parents have asked to opt out of all kinds of lessons for religious reasons over the last 40 years. That includes portrayals of supernatural topics like wizards and magic and world history and current events that parents viewed as unflattering to their religion.

Some worry schools would ditch certain content and lessons altogether to reduce the likelihood of opt-out requests — a move that would deliver yet another blow to efforts to make curriculum more inclusive.

Teachers might also decide to make LGBTQ-inclusive material optional, said Stacie Brensilver Berman, a clinical assistant professor at New York University who has written about teaching LGBTQ history and has helped teachers introduce potentially controversial topics in the classroom.

Supreme Court weighs right of religious parents to opt kids out of LGBTQ material

For example, teachers might decide to keep books with LGBTQ characters and themes on their classroom shelves, but forgo using those books in classroom read-alouds. Or they may recommend the books “to a student they know has queer parents or a student they know has relatives or friends who are trans and nonbinary, but not make it part of the curriculum,” she said.

Tiferet Ani, a former Montgomery County Public Schools teacher who sits on the board of History UnErased, a national provider of LGBTQ-inclusive history curriculum, worries that widespread religious opt-outs could send students the message that LGBTQ identities are taboo and further stigmatize students who identify with the content their classmates are skipping.

Mahmoud v. Taylor stems from a challenge raised by several religious parents in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools after the district added books with LGBTQ characters and themes to its elementary school English curriculum in 2022.

Among the additions were a book called “Prince & Knight,” which tells the story of two men who fall in love after they battle a dragon together, and “Love, Violet,” a story about a young girl who worries her same-sex crush won’t like the valentine she made her.

At first, the school district — one of the largest in the country and known for its racial, ethnic, and religious diversity — permitted parents to opt their children out of lessons related to the books. But eventually school officials said they’d received too many opt-out requests and would no longer grant them.

Many parents protested the decision and some sued, arguing that the books’ messages about sexuality and gender identity were at odds with their religious beliefs.

While the parents’ lawsuit continues, Montgomery County Public Schools must notify parents if one of the LGBTQ-inclusive books, or any similar books, are to be used “in any way,” the Supreme Court ruling notes, and parents must be allowed to excuse their kids from that instruction.

National reporting intern Norah Rami contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Schools at epicenter of Trump’s deportation campaign brace for uncertain summer

2025-06-18T18:17:16+00:00

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When immigration agents raided a fast-fashion warehouse a mile from Santee Education Complex in Los Angeles earlier this month, the tension in the school was palpable.

That did not let up after a student learned his father and grandfather had been detained in that day’s raids. Staff consoled the student as he waited to be picked up, making sure his family knew about resources that could be helpful to them.

As the 1,600-student school readied for graduation day, principal Violeta Ruiz responded to worried messages from her students over Instagram and recorded voice messages assuring families it was safe to attend the upcoming ceremony.

And when summer programming started Tuesday, Ruiz made sure students saw her familiar face as they arrived, even though she’s technically not on the summer school staff.

“I made sure to be out because the kids all know who I am,” Ruiz said. “Some of them were a little uneasy, but as soon as they entered our gates, they were ready to go.”

Ruiz’s experience illustrates what schools at the epicenter of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign have had to do to counteract the fear rippling through their communities. Schools like Santee, where 1 in 5 students are English learners, are spending time and money to keep kids in school and tend to families in crisis. Los Angeles Unified added 100 summer school sites after the raids to cut down on the amount of time children and parents spend in transit, where they might cross paths with an immigration agent.

The stakes are high: Recent research from Stanford University found that immigration raids in California have contributed to an already alarming absenteeism crisis.

What’s playing out in L.A. also underscores why it’s so important for school leaders across the country to stay in contact with families this summer, said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, director of the National Newcomer Network, a coalition that works to support new immigrant students.

Many school communities are feeling the effects of heightened immigration enforcement, she noted, from Charlotte, North Carolina, where a parent was detained not far from the school dropoff line, to New York City, where a high schooler was detained at a routine immigration hearing.

“It is especially important now for school leaders to step up and speak out on this issue, communicate with families, and share what they are doing differently to ensure that schools are being protected in the next week and beyond,” Vázquez Baur said. “These are the experiences that will impact the attitudes of families as they consider whether they will return in the fall.”

The worst-case scenario, she said, would be if parents took stock of the situation this summer and decided: “It is too risky for us to send you back.”

Why summer is key time to connect with immigrant families

On the first day of Trump’s presidency, federal officials revoked a longstanding policy that treated schools, churches, hospitals, and other places that provide critical services as “sensitive” locations where immigration enforcement was limited. Since then, there haven’t been raids on schools, but enforcement carried out nearby has left many school communities shaken.

In L.A. for example, the recent raids began as Los Angeles Unified was preparing to host hundreds of graduation and moving-up ceremonies for students. The district stationed extra school police outside some events and scrambled to set up Zoom feeds for families too afraid to attend. Some parents whose children were the first in their family to graduate from high school didn’t get to witness that milestone in person.

At a press conference held Tuesday at Santee, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he hoped the additional summer school offerings would show immigrant families that the district is committed to supporting them.

Students played a game inside the library during an Los Angeles Unified summer program at Monte Vista Street Elementary in July 2024.

In addition to expanding summer school sites from 220 to 320, Carvalho said the district would offer transportation to any child whose family requested it, again to cut down on the time parents spend in transit. Kids too afraid to attend in person would also be given the option of virtual summer school.

“We will allocate the resources to do everything we can to stabilize and normalize your condition, despite the challenges that you’re facing,” Carvalho said.

It is not yet clear how much the summer school expansion will cost, Carvalho said. That will depend on how many students show up at the new sites and how many additional staffers are needed. The district’s summer school operation was already a sprawling endeavor with some 90,000 students enrolled in traditional academic-focused programs, and another 40,000 involved in enrichment activities, such as math or swim camp.

“This is an action without precedent in this school district, but it is again, the right investment at the right time for absolutely the right kids,” Carvalho said.

Los Angeles Unified hosts a sprawling summer school program with academic and enrichment activities for tens of thousands of students. In July 2024, students participated in summer programming at Monte Vista Street Elementary.

While it’s important for schools not to over-promise what safeguards they can provide, Vázquez Baur said, schools can make clear to families this summer what their policies are if an immigration agent shows up on school grounds, and what resources they can offer if a student or family member is detained off campus.

School principals can ensure that new hires get the proper training on how to interact with federal immigration officials, and invite trusted community organizations to attend summer events to put families at ease. Schools can also review and update their protocols, especially if they notice new immigration enforcement tactics over the summer.

Above all, she said, it’s important for schools to maintain regular communication with families. If there was a weekly email during the school year, keep that up, Vázquez Baur said. And if immigration enforcement is affecting the broader school community over the summer, it’s important to acknowledge that, too.

“This is not a break from the school year communication,” she said. “When families don’t know, there’s even more fear.”

For Ruiz, Santee’s principal, keeping students and families in the loop has been a key way to maintain trust.

In February, for example, when immigration agents first swept through Los Angeles, some of Ruiz’s high schoolers started walking out of school in protest.

After talking it over with students and staff, the school decided to host an assembly to give students a safe emotional outlet. Teens put on skits about what they’d do if they were stopped by an agent and how to support one another if someone they loved got detained. They taught each other to be allies, and how to defend themselves, Ruiz said.

In the weeks that followed, Ruiz met with parents to make sure they understood what the school would do if immigration enforcement happened near campus. Students got “red cards” listing their constitutional rights. Some teachers hung butterflies on their classroom doors made by the school’s MEChA student group to show support for undocumented students.

And after a few staffers made butterfly T-shirts to wear at school, lots of staff and students started showing up in their own butterfly attire.

To Ruiz, it was an unspoken but unmistakable way to tell students: We are here for you.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Why the Trump administration grounded these middle schoolers’ drones — and other STEM research

2025-06-10T16:59:25+00:00

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Give a girl a drone, and she might see her future as a scientist.

But if her teacher doesn’t have the training or resources to turn cool tech into lessons that stick, she’s likely to crash it, get frustrated, and move on.

Take Flight, a research project backed by $1.5 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation, aimed to solve that problem with a drone-focused curriculum for rural middle schools. The drones could fly in classrooms — no big outdoor space needed. The lessons were developed with teachers and easy for newbies to pick up. And the program placed a particular emphasis on girls, who often get frustrated by the handheld controller while their male classmates, who tend to have more video game experience, whiz by.

The lessons included real-world scenarios for using drones, like finding a lost child, that often appeal to young girls, and writing exercises to remind kids of what they’re good at before they try something hard.

A sixth grader from Conway, New Hampshire flies a drone as part of the Take Flight research program.

At first, Laurie Prewandowski wrinkled her nose at Take Flight’s approach. It seemed “touchy feely” to the digital learning specialist who works in a rural New Hampshire middle school and is known as the “drone lady.” But then she saw kids enjoying the lessons and getting a STEM confidence boost.

“All those little things matter,” she said. “It’s really for any kid with a barrier.”

For decades, the federal government believed getting more students interested in science, math, and technology was a national security priority. But in April, the Trump administration cancelled funding for Take Flight and over 800 other STEM education projects funded by the National Science Foundation. The agency said it primarily terminated grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as environmental justice and combatting disinformation.

It’s yet another way the Trump administration has sought to undermine efforts specifically meant to help women and girls and students of color. The administration has frequently claimed this work is, in fact, discriminatory, and has sought to withhold funding from schools that don’t comply with its civil rights vision, although that attempt is on hold for now.

Sixteen states sued to stop Trump’s NSF cuts, which represent a significant hit for STEM education research. NSF has long been a primary funder of this work, and one of the few institutions that helps researchers not only test new ideas in the classroom, but figure out what worked and why — which is key to replicating a successful program.

Researchers say these cancelled projects have broken trust, won’t be easy to revive, and left lots of data unanalyzed.

Seventh graders from Kearsarge Regional Middle School in New Hampshire participate in a Take Flight drone activity.

At the time Take Flight lost its National Science Foundation grant, its curriculum was being tested by 1,200 students and 30 rural middle school teachers across 10 states.

The research team had promising early data showing the program helped both boys and girls who weren’t interested in science or math before to envision working in a STEM field, said Amanda Bastoni, the lead researcher on the project.

That matters because rural students are less likely to go into STEM fields. They often attend under-funded schools and have less access to high-tech industries than their peers in urban schools. But now researchers won’t be able to follow up with kids to see if Take Flight altered their trajectory in high school.

“The government spent all this money but didn’t get the results,” said Bastoni, who is the director of career technical and adult education at the nonprofit CAST. Without funding, her team has to “turn in a final report that says: We have no idea if this really works or not.”

Why the government funds STEM education research

President Harry S. Truman signed the law that created the National Science Foundation in 1950, in part to recognize the key role scientific research played in World War II.

Congress has held that the agency’s support of STEM education and research are essential to the nation’s security, economy, and health. And, for decades, federal lawmakers have charged NSF with getting more people who are underrepresented in STEM into that pipeline to maintain a competitive workforce.

For example, a 1980 law calls for NSF to fund a “comprehensive and continuing program to increase substantially the contribution and advancement of women and minorities” in science and technology.

The law authorized NSF to create fellowships for women, minority recruitment programs, and K-12 programs to boost interest in STEM among girls.

The Trump administration’s approach runs counter to that. On April 18, the head of the NSF announced that any efforts by the agency to broaden participation in STEM “must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere” and “should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”

Sixteen attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York, are suing NSF to end that policy, arguing it does exactly the opposite of what Congress asked the agency to do. NSF has yet to file a response in court and a spokesperson for the agency declined to comment on the lawsuit.

It’s still unclear exactly how the Trump administration determined which grants to terminate.

In February, the Washington Post reported that NSF staff were told to comb through active research grants for keywords like “cultural relevance,” “diverse backgrounds” and “women” to see if they violated Trump’s executive orders. Some projects previously appeared on a list of “woke DEI grants at NSF” circulated by Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican chair of the Senate science committee.

According to emails shared with Chalkbeat, Jamie French, a budget official with NSF, told researchers who lost their funding that their work no longer aligned with NSF priorities, but did not give more details. French told researchers the decision was final and they could not appeal.

In response to questions from Chalkbeat about why NSF cancelled Take Flight and other research projects, a spokesperson for NSF reiterated that rationale, and said the agency would still fund projects that “promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare and secure the national defense.”

For Frances Harper, an assistant professor of mathematics education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the change was jarring.

She received a $700,000 grant from NSF in 2021 to work with 10 Black and Latina mothers with children in Knox County Schools. Together, they were studying how parents can advocate for improvements in their children’s math education and what teachers can learn from them.

Some of the Latina mothers in the study, for example, saw that English learners had a lot of anxiety about taking high-stakes tests, so they created a peer study group for them.

When Sethuraman Panchanathan, the NSF director selected during Trump’s first term who also served under President Joe Biden, visited her university in 2023, Harper said, “he asked me to convey to the mothers how much he valued families being involved in NSF projects.”

But after Harper’s research appeared on Cruz’s “woke” list, her university asked her to pause her work. She lost her funding the same day NSF announced changes to its priorities. And Panchanathan resigned a few days later.

NSF cuts felt from elementary school to college

Some researchers are applying for emergency funding from private foundations to salvage what they can. But much of their planned work will no longer be possible.

The Chicago Children’s Museum was working with Latino families from McAuliffe Elementary School in Chicago on a program known as Somos Ingenieros, or We Are Engineers, to get kids interested in engineering early on.

The team ran two after-school programs for around 20 families, but now won’t have funding to reach dozens more, or to reach the museum and wider school community.

Parents and children met after school for six weeks to learn about building with various materials, including everyday items like sticks, pine cones, and rocks. That helped kids see engineering in their daily lives and it invited immigrant parents who played with those materials as kids to share their own experiences.

When Chicago students in the Somos Ingenieros program designed puppets, they learned about concepts like friction, elasticity, and trial and error.

Families also got to put their building skills to the test. One group chose to create puppets and had to figure out how to get the intricate pieces to move correctly. Another picked piñatas and had to strategize how to make them hold heavy candy and survive lots of whacks.

Already, the research team was seeing evidence that the program had boosted parents’ confidence to do engineering activities with their children, said Kim Koin, the director of art and tinkering studios at the Chicago Children’s Museum, who was also the lead researcher on the project.

For Ryan Belville, the principal of McAuliffe, the loss of the program means his students will have fewer opportunities to imagine a college or career pathway in STEM and the arts.

“It may be that moment that they made that puppet that makes them want to be an engineer or a scientist,” Belville said.

And for Karletta Chief, much of the harm is in the lost talent and broken trust caused by the abrupt NSF cancellation.

Chief, a professor of environmental science at the University of Arizona, was a lead researcher with the Native FEWS Alliance, which received $10 million from NSF to address food, energy, and water crises in Indigenous communities, and to develop pathways for Native Americans and other underrepresented students to pursue environmental careers.

A Baboquivari High School student feeds a cow as part of the school’s livestock and agricultural program. The Arizona school was among the partners of the Native FEWS Alliance.

The Alliance had built a vast network of research and mentorship opportunities over six years, Chief said. It was involved in dozens of projects across the U.S., from creating K-12 school curriculum to mentoring Native students as they transitioned from tribal colleges to four-year universities.

“Our partnerships are built on trust and long commitment,” Chief said. “These are relationships that we have built over years, and it was just really unfortunate that we had to say, ‘sorry!’”

Now Chief and others are scrambling to find funding to cover graduate student researchers’ outstanding tuition and health care bills.

She worries even if the cuts were somehow reversed, it would be difficult to put the project back together. Many of the students and staff they had to let go have already taken other jobs.

“There’s a lot of knowledge and expertise that will be lost,” she said. “We were stopped when we were going full force. … Now we just went to zero.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Many states picked diploma pathways over high school exit exams. Did students benefit?

2025-05-27T21:10:05+00:00

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When 18-year-old Edgar Brito thinks about what he’ll do in the future, mechanical engineering is high on the list.

The senior at Washington state’s Toppenish High School first considered the career after he joined a STEM group in middle school. In a ninth grade class, he researched the earning potential for a STEM degree (“so much more money”) and the demand for mechanical engineers (“exploding”).

So Brito took some engineering classes at his high school, became president of his state’s Technology Student Association, and is starting at the University of Washington this fall on a pre-science track.

Brito’s experience is what state education leaders hoped for when they replaced the high school exit exam with multiple pathways to graduation. When he graduates in June, Brito will have completed several diploma pathways, including ones aimed at preparing for college and building career skills.

But his experience isn’t necessarily typical. He has friends who have no idea what pathway they’re on — or if they’re on one at all. The requirements could be clearer and advisers could spend more time talking about them with students, he said.

“Making sure that we know exactly what our pathway is and what it means to be on a pathway would have definitely helped out a lot more students,” Brito said.

Five years after Washington rolled out its pathways, they appear to have helped more students who aren’t college-bound to graduate, which was part of the goal. But the system has also created new issues and replicated some old ones.

For the Class of 2023 — the most recent year with available data — around 1 in 5 seniors didn’t have a pathway. That meant they weren’t on track to graduate within four years and at risk of dropping out. Some students relied on pandemic-era waivers that don’t exist anymore. That’s similar to the share of students who didn’t graduate on time in 2019, the final year of the exit exam.

Asian and white students are much more likely to complete one of the math and English pathways, considered the college-prep route, while Native students, English learners, and students with disabilities are more likely to have no graduation pathway.

“The implementation of graduation pathways has reinforced that the student groups who are the furthest from educational justice are completing the requirement at lower rates,” state education officials wrote in a 2023 report.

Across the state, students don’t have equal access to the pathways. Many schools, especially smaller and rural ones, struggle to offer more than a handful of career and technical education classes. Some career pathways train students for low-paying jobs with little opportunity for advancement. Some students get funneled to the military pathway, despite having no aspirations to serve, because the aptitude test is easier to pass. Many teens, like Brito’s friends, find the pathways confusing.

Washington is not alone. Nearly half of states offer multiple diploma options or graduation pathways. And some, like Indiana, have already taken a second pass at their pathways. Many have struggled to address the same big questions, including what exactly high school is for, and what students should need to do to earn a diploma.

Now the state board of education is poised to overhaul its graduation requirements again.

Piling on more ways for students to graduate is not the answer, said Brian Jeffries, the policy director at the Partnership for Learning, an education foundation affiliated with the Washington Roundtable, which is made up of executives from across the state.

“Let’s better prepare our students to meet the pathways, [rather] than keep creating a smorgasbord or a cafeteria of options, which too often turn into trapdoors,” said Jeffries, who sits on the state task force that’s looking at graduation requirements. Until disadvantaged kids have access to better instruction and more support, he said, “we’re going to keep spinning this wheel.”

The path to 100 high school graduation pathways

Back in the early 2000s, many states raised the bar to graduate from high school with the hope it would get more kids to college. As a result, by 2012, half of all states required an exit exam, including Washington state.

But as student debt soared and some questioned the value of higher education, schools abandoned that college-for-all mentality. Critics of exit exams argued that they blocked too many disadvantaged students from graduating.

In Washington state’s final year of the exit exam, around 1 in 10 high school seniors didn’t pass the English language arts portion, and 1 in 5 didn’t pass the math test, the Seattle Times reported. The law that nixed the exit exam had broad support from the Washington teachers union, state education officials, and parents. Lawmakers passed it unanimously.

Just six states require an exit exam now, with New York and Massachusetts dropping their tests this school year.

But absent an exit exam, states haven’t really reached a consensus on what students should have to do to prove they’re ready to graduate.

Nationwide, there are now more than 100 ways to graduate from high school, according to a recent report from the Education Strategy Group, a K-12 consulting firm. The myriad options provide flexibility, but “also contribute to the lack of clarity about what it means to earn a diploma,” the report found.

When the nation’s main K-12 education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed 10 years ago, it tasked schools with getting students ready for college and career. But many states and schools are still trying to figure out how to do the career part well.

“Part of the challenge, frankly, is that schools are going through a bit of a post-high-stakes-test-based accountability identity crisis,” said Shaun Dougherty, a professor of education and policy at Boston College.

Michael Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, says that’s partly because for all the talk about changing high schools, graduation policies are still fairly restrictive. One reason Washington is revisiting its policies now is because some educators worry the state’s 24-credit requirement fills up students’ schedules, leaving little time for apprenticeships and other hands-on learning.

Many kids are still “sleepwalking through six or seven class periods a day, mostly through college-prep courses,” Petrilli said, with “maybe a few career-tech electives on the side.”

“We haven’t really unleashed high schools to do things very differently,” Petrilli said. “If we actually think that career tech is valuable, if we think that college-for-all was a mistake, then we need to be willing to act on it.”

Diploma pathways can bolster teens’ interest in school

What’s happening in the Toppenish School District illustrates the potential of the pathways model.

The district, which serves around 3,700 students in south-central Washington, is able to offer a wide range of career and technical courses, including in growing industries, like health care and agriculture. The career-oriented pathway has helped increase some students’ interest in school.

Toppenish High School students learn about human body systems in an introductory class that's part of the Washington school's health and medical science career pathway.

“It is very hands-on, and so it’s definitely more engaging,” said Monica Saldivar, Toppenish’s director of career and technical education. The old one-size-fits-all approach had “a negative impact for our students with diverse learning needs, academic challenges, and also language barriers.”

Just before the state overhauled its graduation requirements, over 81% of Toppenish students graduated within four years. Now over 89% do.

The improvements have been especially pronounced for English learners and Native students, many of whom live on the Yakama Nation. Since the state introduced pathways, Native student graduation rates have risen from 67% to 88%.

Since pathways launched, the district has added several career-technical education courses, including advanced welding and classes that prepare students to work as medical transcriptionists or home health care aides. That can require some careful career counseling with students, as those jobs are in high demand but don’t pay well unless students get additional training or schooling and move up the career ladder.

Still, the expanded offerings have helped some students tailor their post-high school plans.

Frances Tilley, a Toppenish senior who’s headed to Gonzaga University in the fall, will graduate in June after completing both college-prep and career-oriented pathways.

The 18-year-old took two of the new sports medicine classes and liked learning about what to do if you have a concussion. (Don’t try to stay awake. “We learned that’s not true,” Tilley said.)

Toppenish students practiced hands-on skills like casting, kinesio taping, and suturing at a sports medicine event in December 2024. The class is one of several the Washington district added after the state introduced diploma pathways.

She followed that up with another health care class that touched on different disciplines. She gravitated toward psychology and now plans to get a master’s in counseling and become a mental health worker.

Pathways can also help schools expose students to career options earlier.

Three years ago, Toppenish started offering middle schoolers two-week labs to test drive careers such as marketing, nursing, or culinary arts. By the end of eighth grade, they’ve learned about 10 different careers. Now school counselors use students’ interests to help plot their high school schedules.

Kaylee Celestino, 16, had long considered becoming a teacher. The Toppenish sophomore often gets “education” as an answer when she takes career quizzes. But the career-exploration labs also piqued her interest in science, and now she could also envision becoming a pediatric nurse. So her course schedule reflects that with advanced biology and college-level chemistry.

“I just want to help people out,” she said, “like my teachers have helped out me.”

Staffing, standards, data gaps make pathways challenging

Staffing career and technical classes is one of the biggest hurdles to doing pathways well.

Washington makes it easier than other states for professionals to put their work experience toward a teaching license. But many schools still struggle to attract and retain teachers for attractive fields like health services and welding when the private sector beckons.

“These are lucrative fields,” said Dougherty, who has researched career education programs in several states, including Washington. “It’s hard to convince people to give up that salary to become full-time educators.”

Toppenish students learn skills like welding and metal cutting in an upper-level career and technical education class. Some Washington schools struggle to find teachers for skilled trades classes because they are in high demand in the private sector.

That creates extra work for schools. Saldivar, for example, meets regularly with regional employers to learn about their workforce needs. That helps inform whether Toppenish should drop or add certain classes, and which teachers to recruit. Saldivar is constantly networking and following up on “so and so may know someone” tips.

Figuring out how to hold all students to a high standard when they are meeting different criteria to graduate is a challenge, too. Some worry Washington’s pathways are too flexible.

The state rolled out a new pathway this year that allows students to graduate by completing a project, work-related experience, or community service. Lawmakers wanted to give students a way to show what they know besides taking a class or a test. But students don’t have to work with a teacher at their school, and if they choose to work with an outside mentor, there’s no clear rules for how they should be vetted.

“Where are they finding these people?” said Jeffries of the Partnership for Learning. “Is their opinion an expert opinion that we could trust, or is this based on vibes?”

Experts say it’s also important for students to understand what their likely earnings and other outcomes will be depending on which career pathway they follow.

“We should not be talking about CTE in a very generic way,” said Dan Goldhaber, a professor at the University of Washington who has researched career and technical education teacher preparation in the state. “What the concentration is matters.”

But Washington state doesn’t yet know how students’ outcomes may vary depending on which career and technical education concentration they chose, Katie Hannig, a spokesperson for Washington’s state education agency, wrote in an email. This is a common problem nationwide.

The state also doesn’t yet know whether the pathway, or pathways, students completed were connected to their post-high school plan, which they must create to graduate. That hasn’t assuaged concerns that students are completing pathways disconnected from their college and career goals.

The state expects to get that data in the future, Hannig wrote. Analyzing how diploma pathways affect graduation trends and postsecondary outcomes could help schools target resources and support.

“Any new policy is a work in progress, but the fundamental core value of this policy is preparing students for their next step after high school graduation,” Hannig wrote. “Washington is proud to be one of those states that have established and continue to refine those pathways.”

For now, districts like Toppenish are scrambling to coordinate weekly college presentations, field trips to work sites, and military recruiter visits — “a little of everything,” Saldivar said — to hedge their bets.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

After Uvalde, school mental health grants had bipartisan support. Now Trump is cutting them.

2025-05-02T23:18:36+00:00

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Schools will likely have to lay off social workers and counselors, and college programs designed to train mental health providers may shut down after the Trump administration decided it would stop funding grants created under a bipartisan law passed in response to mass school shootings.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act came on the heels of the devastating 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 elementary schoolers and two teachers. Gun control remains a deeply divisive issue, but Democrats and Republicans agreed: Schools should get more money to address students’ mental health needs. They set aside $1 billion to do that.

When it came time to distribute that money, the Biden administration gave applicants the option to show how they planned to diversify the mental health profession and prepare educators to work with kids from diverse backgrounds — in a bid to help students who often have higher needs but struggle to access care outside of school. Now schools that tailored their proposals to meet that criteria appear to be among those losing their funding.

“The Department has determined these grantees are violating the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law; conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; undermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help; or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds,” Brandy Brown, the deputy assistant secretary for K-12 education, wrote in a Tuesday night email to members of Congress.

The Education Department has the authority to stop funding multi-year grant recipients, but it rarely does so.

The state education agencies in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin were among the grantees that lost their funding. So did the San Diego County Office of Education, Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska, and Teachers College at Columbia University, which was supporting efforts in New York City schools.

“Grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,” Madi Biedermann, an Education Department spokesperson, wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

The Trump administration is objecting, in particular, to the Biden administration’s decision to give schools more points on their grant application if they planned to increase the number of mental health staffers from diverse backgrounds or who were from the communities where they’d be working with kids. The federal notice didn’t say what counted as “diverse,” and it noted that any hiring strategies used by schools had to follow federal civil rights laws.

“We were not there to say that this meant there had to be any type of racial quotas, or it had to be along the lines or race, or ability, or language,” said Mary Wall, who until January served as the Education Department’s deputy assistant secretary for P-12 education. “We simply said it would be wise and we encourage applicants to make hires of school-based mental health professionals that are reflective of the communities that they’re serving.”

Many schools expected to get three or four more years of funding, but now the grants will run out in December. Wall said schools were well on their way to hitting the goal of hiring and training 14,000 mental health professionals, but these cuts put that at risk.

“Not giving grant continuations has an extreme impact on whether or not the work can continue,” she said.

That’s already happening in some places. Teachers College had begun training five graduate students to provide mental health services in schools, and was preparing to send offer letters to eight more when the college found out it had lost its $4.9 million five-year grant. The Trump administration ended it back in March when it terminated $400 million in funding for Columbia University.

Those trainees, many of whom were bilingual or first-generation college students who couldn’t otherwise afford graduate school were slated to work in high-need schools in Harlem and East Harlem — parts of New York City where many newly arrived immigrants live and families often struggle to find stable housing. Now, schools won’t get the year of free services those trainees were going to provide, such as therapy and parent training. And there will be gaps in the future pipeline, too.

“We were going to be producing professionals who would be working in these settings delivering school-based mental health services for years to come, ideally their entire careers,” said Prerna Arora, an associate professor of psychology and education at Teachers College who was overseeing the grant. “We are in desperate need of these types of professionals.”

Cuts to mental health grants part of anti-DEI push

The cuts appear to be part of the Trump administration’s broader attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and exemplify how the administration is using the Supreme Court’s ruling that barred affirmative action in higher education to target a much wider set of DEI practices in K-12 schools.

Already, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal education funding from states that won’t sign off on its contested interpretation of what constitutes racial discrimination under federal civil rights law — a policy that’s currently on hold as several legal challenges work their way through the courts.

The Trump administration is investigating Chicago Public Schools for launching a Black student success plan and has sought to dismantle other practices, such as forming staff affinity groups based on race or allowing college students to participate in separate graduation ceremonies that celebrate their race or heritage.

It is unclear exactly how many of the 265 grantees listed on the Education Department’s website lost their funding and how much money was clawed back. On Thursday, an Education Department spokesperson said they could not provide a list of which school districts, states, or colleges lost their funding.

The Education Department told members of Congress that the terminated grants were worth $1 billion, but that is almost certainly an overestimate, Wall said, as many grantees had already spent a chunk of their money. The grants paid for 1,500 to 2,000 new mental health providers to work in schools across the U.S. in the first year alone, Wall said.

It also appears some schools kept their grants. The Indiana Department of Education, Fort Wayne Community Schools in Indiana, and Normal Public Schools in Oklahoma all told Chalkbeat they hadn’t been contacted about changes to their funding.

The pandemic helped bring the need for more school-based mental health workers into sharp relief as many schools saw a spike in children experiencing depression, anxiety, or other kinds of stress. So did the many unaddressed warning signs exhibited by the teenage gunman in Uvalde, who spoke often of violence and targeted the classroom where he was once bullied. That, and similar cases in other school shootings, led Congress to invest in mental health staff as a school safety measure.

With the help of federal COVID relief funds, many schools launched teletherapy services to address in-person staff shortages and to connect kids with bilingual therapists, male counselors, or mental health workers of color — who are often in especially short supply, but can form close connections with kids who look like them or who faced similar challenges growing up.

While there isn’t much research on the effects of pairing school-based mental health workers with kids of similar backgrounds, “we do know in research outside of the school environment that it’s actually really beneficial for students of color to have therapists or mental health supports from folks within their own communities,” said Nancy Duchesneau, a senior P-12 research associate who studies children’s social and emotional well-being at the nonprofit EdTrust.

“If you have students of color in a school, you really do want adults in the building — teachers, school counselors, mental health supports — who are of the same race and ethnicity to be able to better understand where students are coming from and make sure that the interventions or supports that they receive are not based on bias, but are truly based upon the needs of the students,” Duchesneau said.

Chris Rufo, the influential conservative activist, was the first to publicize the mental health grant cuts, the Associated Press reported. Rufo’s social media posts have prompted the Trump administration to cancel other education spending.

This time, Rufo posted examples from the grant proposals on the social media site X that he said were being used to “advance left-wing racialism and discrimination.” The Education Department pointed to some of those same examples when explaining what it found objectionable about the grants.

One grantee planned to hire 24 new school counselors and set a goal for eight to be people of color, an Education Department spokesperson told Chalkbeat. Other grantees said they would train therapists to address racial trauma or help mental health workers use a “critical compassion perspective,” instead of a colorblind perspective that assumes race and skin color don’t matter.

Another grantee wrote that they were training the next generation of school counselors “to recognize and challenge systemic injustices, antiracism, and the pervasiveness of white supremacy.”

State officials condemn — and applaud — the cuts

Some officials agreed with the move. In a statement, Ryan Walters, the superintendent of Oklahoma’s schools, said he applauded the Trump administration for “taking bold action to eliminate these misguided programs.” Oklahoma had planned to spend $1.9 million a year to help teachers, community members, and clinicians get retrained to work as mental health staff in schools before the state lost its funding.

“These grants were never about addressing real mental health needs, they were about pushing a political agenda into our classrooms,” Walters said in the statement, adding that his education agency was “forced” to apply for the money by state lawmakers. “We made our opposition clear then, and we stand by it today.”

Other state officials condemned the cuts. In Colorado, Jeremy Meyer, a spokesperson for the state’s education agency, said the state was “deeply disappointed” by the Trump administration’s decision to end Colorado’s grant, which was expected to total $7.5 million over five years.

Now the state will get just $1.5 million. The state was still rolling out its program to help schools recruit and retrain mental health staff so “no funds had yet been distributed to the field,” Meyer wrote.

Jill Underly, Wisconsin’s state superintendent, said in a news release that the decision to eliminate $8 million of the state’s planned $10 million grant was “indefensible” at a time “when communities are urgently asking for help.”

Already, she wrote, the federal grant had helped Wisconsin schools hire an additional 350 mental health staffers and helped enroll 500 new graduate students in the University of Wisconsin’s certification program.

“Kids don’t get a chance to do-over their school experience while the federal government recalibrates its political agenda,” Underly wrote. “These disruptions need to stop.”

Chalkbeat’s New York bureau chief Amy Zimmer contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

States sue Trump Education Department to defend school diversity efforts

2025-04-25T22:51:21+00:00

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A coalition of Democrat-led states is suing the U.S. Department of Education to block its demand that states certify compliance with the Trump administration’s position that many common diversity practices represent illegal discrimination.

The Education Department had given states until Thursday to sign a document certifying they comply with federal anti-discrimination requirements and with the administration’s interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The decision barred the use of race in college admissions, and under President Donald Trump, the Education Department has said that means that a range of common practices associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, could be illegal.

States that don’t comply could lose their federal funding.

The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts asks the federal courts to declare the certification requirement null and void and find that states have no duty to comply or investigate whether school districts have complied.

Led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, the lawsuit calls the administration’s interpretation of the law “new, vague, confusing, and incorrect.” The states, which include California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, and others, further allege that the Education Department has not clearly described what actions or practices it wants to stop and that the department is pressuring schools to end practices that are actually necessary to protect students’ civil rights. Meanwhile, billions of dollars are at stake.

The lawsuit describes the certification requirement as “subjective and illegal punishment for not acceding to an agenda to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion of any kind in schools — even though federal funding and civil rights statutes require public education to be open and welcoming to all regardless of protected characteristics, and inclusive and equitable, especially for those students who have disabilities and need accommodations.”

“The president does not have the authority to rewrite Congress’ allocation of these funds, any more than he can rewrite the clear directives of the Civil Rights Act,” Raoul told reporters on Friday. “This administration has consistently declined to define which diversity, equity, and inclusion practices it finds objectionable, or what the basis of its legal objections are. That’s because it can’t.”

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

The certification requirement is already on hold after judges issued injunctions in response to earlier lawsuits filed by national teachers unions and civil rights groups. Two of those lawsuits initially were brought to block enforcement of a February Dear Colleague letter in which the Education Department first laid out its new interpretation of civil rights law.

The judges in those cases each reached slightly different conclusions, blocking either the Dear Colleague letter or the certification requirement on different legal grounds, creating a legal patchwork that could be overturned on appeal.

California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said the states’ lawsuit differed from others challenging the DEI certifications in a few key ways. The lawsuit spans a broader range of executive actions than those at issue in the other lawsuits. The lawsuit spans multiple jurisdictions. And the states’ legal claims, which involve spending, separation of powers, and appropriations, could end up being stronger, he said.

“We have different claims, that we think are very strong claims, and could be the winning claims,” Bonta said. “We also, as states, have a separate, strong, and unique interest in ensuring that these billions of dollars in Congressionally mandated education funds continue to flow.”

None of the attorneys general from California, Illinois, New York, nor Minnesota said they’d heard anything from the Department of Education since the deadline passed Thursday without their states filing certifications.

“This silence speaks for itself,” James said.

The lawsuit is just one of several that the states have filed seeking to block the Trump administration from pursuing its education agenda. Trump has signed executive orders aiming to dismantle the federal Education Department, expand school choice, and remove “woke” influences from schools. He has repeatedly threatened schools with the loss of federal funding.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon oversaw layoffs and buyouts that reduced the size of the Education Department by half, and she abruptly stopped distribution of remaining COVID relief dollars that states and school districts had been granted permission to spend.

During a Friday court hearing in a separate case contesting mass layoffs at the Education Department, U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun peppered the government’s lawyer with questions about the administration’s position that the staff reductions should not be subject to a legal challenge.

The states challenging the layoffs say that the Education Department is so diminished it cannot provide basic services, enforce civil rights protections, and distribute funding to school districts — functions that are required by law and can only be undone by Congress.

After the government’s lawyer argued that the plaintiffs were seeking to act “as chief human resources officer for the Department of Education” by forcing the administration to rehire workers, Joun offered an analogy. Imagine walking into a Dunkin’ Donuts and there’s no one behind the counter, the Massachusetts judge said.

“I don’t think the plaintiffs are saying that Dunkin’ Donuts should hire these […] employees back,” said Joun, who has not yet issued a decision. “I think what they’re saying is they want their cup of coffee.”

Chalkbeat reporter Alex Zimmerman contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump signs orders to promote stricter school discipline, end analysis of racial disparities

2025-04-24T00:10:54+00:00

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President Donald Trump signed executive orders Wednesday that aim to promote stricter school discipline and discourage schools from considering whether discipline policies have a greater impact on students of color.

The executive orders target civil rights guidance from the Obama administration that Trump revoked during his first administration and Biden never formally restored. Some school leaders, teachers, and conservative education advocates blamed the Obama-era guidance for deteriorating safety conditions in schools, alleging that administrators let bad behavior slide rather than risk additional scrutiny.

The most recent federal data, from the 2021-22 school year, shows students report fewer assaults and less harassment and bullying than they did a decade ago. Still, a rise in school shootings along with viral videos of vicious assaults have fueled fears about school safety. Two-thirds of schools reported at least one violent incident on campus in the 2021-22 school year.

Under former President Barack Obama, the Education Department warned schools that policies that led to students of certain racial groups being suspended or expelled at much higher rates could be discriminatory. In particular, Black students tend to be suspended at higher rates than other students.

This approach to civil rights enforcement is an example of disparate impact analysis, which considers whether ostensibly race-neutral policies affect certain racial or ethnic groups differently.

The executive orders ban the use of disparate impact analysis in civil rights enforcement and threaten schools with consequences if they use “racial discrimination and preferencing” in school discipline.

They were two of seven education-related executive orders that Trump signed Wednesday afternoon. Other orders encourage schools to train students to use artificial intelligence, pledge to expand apprenticeships, promote historically Black colleges and universities, and target the university accreditation process.

During the ceremony, Trump said the school discipline executive order was especially important to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and handed her the signed copy to hold.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, schools were forced to consider equity and inclusion when imposing discipline,” McMahon said in a statement. “Their policies placed racial equity quotas over student safety — encouraging schools to turn a blind eye to poor or violent behavior in the name of inclusion.”

“Disciplinary decisions,” she wrote, “should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions.”

The school discipline order requires federal officials to issue new guidance to state education agencies and school districts. It also calls for federal officials to author a report analyzing “DEI-based school discipline and its consequences” with strategies for how the federal government can ensure its dollars do not support “racially preferential policies” such as model school discipline policies.

The report should include information about the status of “discriminatory-equity-ideology-based school discipline and behavior modification techniques in American public education,” the order says, as well as information about nonprofits promoting such approaches with support from federal grants.

The order does not call out particular practices, such as restorative justice, by name, and it is not clear what discipline practices federal officials might consider discriminatory.

Trump’s first education secretary, Betsy DeVos, rescinded the Obama-era guidance after much public debate and attempts to link less harsh school discipline to school shootings.

That guidance led students to be “disciplined differently depending on their race, and some students who should have been suspended or expelled for dangerous behavior remained in the classroom,” the Trump administration said in a fact sheet.

President Joe Biden promised to reinstate the Obama-era school discipline guidance on the campaign trail, but that never came to fruition. In 2022, his education secretary, Miguel Cardona, did call for reduced suspensions and expulsions for students with disabilities — and there is some overlap as Black children with disabilities are more likely to face harsher discipline at school — but his focus was less on race.

Still, the Trump administration said the Biden administration used Title VI, a civil rights law that prohibits racial discrimination in schools and other federally funded activities, “to promote a DEI approach to school discipline, which makes schools less safe.”

Trump was joined at the signing ceremony by Annette Albright, a North Carolina educator who suffered a concussion and other injuries in 2016 after she was assaulted by students who had recently returned to her school from an alternative school.

In the aftermath of the assault, Albright campaigned for stricter penalties and alternative educational settings for students with a record of behavioral problems. She said administrators sometimes cover up violent incidents to avoid making tough decisions or drawing scrutiny.

“This is very important and critical legislation that we have to keep our educators safe,” she said. “We have to keep our students safe, and public schools have to be safe environments.”

School discipline wasn’t a big issue for Trump on the campaign trail, though some Republican state lawmakers have pushed for stricter school discipline following the pandemic, sometimes with Democratic lawmakers’ support.

Many states and schools saw a dramatic drop in suspensions and expulsions when lots of students learned remotely or maintained physical distance from one another during the pandemic. But as students returned to in-person learning, often lacking social skills or with new trauma, some places saw an increase in students acting out.

The executive order banning disparate impact considerations would require U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to repeal or amend all civil rights regulations that take into account disparate impact. Where the law requires the consideration of disparate impact, agency heads should deprioritize enforcement.

A White House fact sheet says that looking at different impacts on different racial groups — rather than discriminatory intent — “violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment for all by requiring race-oriented policies and practices to rebalance outcomes along racial lines.”

This has been a major point of disagreement between progressives and conservatives when it comes to civil rights enforcement.

These orders come as the Trump administration is also pressuring schools to abandon policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The administration has demanded that states sign new certifications that they are complying with an interpretation of civil rights law that sees initiatives, such as trying to hire more teachers of color or offering mentorship to students of color as potentially discriminatory. Those that don’t sign risk their federal funding, administration officials have said.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Supreme Court to rule on right of religious parents to opt kids out of LGBTQ material

2025-04-18T01:05:20+00:00

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When the devout Muslim parents of a second grader learned their son would be reading a story at school about a prince who falls in love with a knight, they asked to opt him out.

The story about a man who marries another man after they team up to vanquish a dragon went against their religious teachings, the parents said. They wanted an alternative assignment.

The book in question, “Prince & Knight,” was one of several books that Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools added to its English curriculum in 2022 as part of a district initiative to put more books featuring LGBTQ characters in elementary school classrooms.

At first, the second grader was allowed to sit outside the classroom during discussions of the book. But a few days later, the district’s school board decided parents could no longer opt their kids out, later citing the volume of opt-out requests. Teachers would also stop informing families when they used one of the LGBTQ-themed books in class.

Many parents spoke out against that decision. The second grader’s parents and other families sued Montgomery County Public Schools to reinstate the opt-out option. Two federal courts let the no opt-out policy stand. Now, the Supreme Court — with a conservative majority that’s likely to be sympathetic to the burgeoning parental rights movement — is set to weigh in. Oral arguments in the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, are scheduled for Tuesday. A decision is expected by June.

At the heart of the case is a longstanding tension between the power of parents to direct their children’s education and the authority of public schools to set their own curriculum. The high court’s ruling could decide whether parents have the right to opt their children out of any content that they see as at odds with their faith — and how far schools must go to accommodate them.

The case comes as Democrat-led states such as New Jersey, Illinois, and California have adopted curriculum that’s more inclusive, especially on topics of gender and sexuality. Meanwhile, Republican-led states like Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana have passed new laws that give parents more insight into what their kids are learning and the ability to opt out of certain lessons.

If the Supreme Court sides with the school district and decides parents don’t have the religious right to opt out, some say that could open the door to schools adopting curriculum without much regard for parent or community feedback. The views of minority parents, especially, could be ignored.

If the parents prevail, some worry schools would remove certain content altogether to lessen the chances of opt-out requests. That would be a set-back for schools and families that support efforts like those in the Montgomery County district to make curriculum more inclusive.

A ruling for the parents also could upend school operations, some legal and education experts say. It could force already stressed teachers and principals to send notifications, devise alternative assignments, and catch kids up if they miss other content during an opt-out.

“Do you have all the parents list out all the things that they believe at the start of the year, so you know and can tailor what you teach?” said Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California who’s studied Americans’ views on opt-out policies. “It’s not hard to see how it could spiral out of control really quickly and really undermine the ability of public schools to perform their basic core function: teaching kids.”

Case centers on religious rights, LGBTQ inclusion

Several Montgomery County parents said in court filings that exposing their kids to the new books at school violated their right to free exercise of religion, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“Our son loves his teachers and implicitly trusts them,” wrote one second grader’s parents who follow Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox teachings. “Having them teach principles about sexuality or gender identity that conflict with our religious beliefs significantly interferes with our ability to form his religious faith.”

Lawyers for the parents say the books’ positive portrayals of LGBTQ characters and themes indirectly pressure kids to adopt that thinking. But they say what their parents want is different than laws like Florida’s that bar teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation in certain grades.

“Our parents aren’t asking for an LGBTQ-free classroom,” said Colten Stanberry, one of the attorneys at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty who is representing the parents in the Supreme Court case. “They are not saying the books can’t be on the shelves. They are specifically challenging instruction,” such as reading the books in class and talking about them with teachers.

In a 2-1 ruling, a federal appeals court sided with the school district. Making kids read books that don’t align with their religious teachings is not a violation of families’ rights, they wrote, because they weren’t forced to change their beliefs or actions. Parents were still free to talk about the picture books with their children and teach them what they wanted, the judges wrote.

That interpretation follows how federal courts have ruled in other similar cases.

Montgomery County Public Schools officials have said they adopted the set of LGTBQ-inclusive books as part of a broader effort to make the district’s curriculum more culturally responsive with texts told from multiple viewpoints. The district is known for its racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, although that diversity hasn’t always equaled harmony.

Similar efforts, according to court documents, included the addition of books about the Black civil rights icon John Lewis and a novel about a Chinese-American immigrant family.

Teachers were expected to use the books as they would any other part of the curriculum. That could mean reading them aloud or putting them in classroom libraries, the district said in court filings.

The books were meant to teach critical reading skills and not for instruction explicitly about sexual orientation or gender identity, the district said.

In addition to “Prince & Knight,” the stories included “Pride Puppy!” an alphabet book for preschoolers and kindergartners about a dog that encounters various scenes at a Pride parade, and “My Rainbow,” in which a Black mother sews a colorful wig for her transgender daughter. And in “Love, Violet” a young girl worries about whether her same-sex crush will like the valentine she made her.

The children's book "Pride Puppy!" by Robin Stevenson follows a playful puppy through a Pride parade and the alphabet. Montgomery County Public Schools removed the book from classrooms after deciding it required instruction that went beyond a reading lesson.

The district also gave teachers guidance about how they could respond to potential questions or comments from students. If a student said being gay is wrong and not permitted in their religion, teachers could respond: “I understand that is what you believe, but not everyone believes that. We don’t have to understand or support a person’s identity to treat them with respect and kindness.”

In another instance, if a child asked about what it meant to be transgender, a teacher could say: “When we’re born, people make a guess about our gender and label us ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ based on our body parts. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.”

Still, some parents and school leaders worried the books used unfamiliar words without defining them. Others questioned whether it was appropriate to show kids in romantic relationships, regardless of their sexual orientation. The district eventually pulled “Pride Puppy!” and “My Rainbow” from classrooms, the Washington Post reported, because kids may not have understood the texts without explicit instruction on vocabulary outside the bounds of the lesson.

“There’s reasonable discussions to be had about what’s age appropriate in curriculum,” Polikoff said. But, Polikoff, who is gay, said this case is more about: “Does acknowledging that gay people exist burden other people’s religious views? Where is the line here?”

How a ruling for the parents could affect schools

If the justices side with the parents in this case, it could give families “broad authority to request opt-outs along a wide array of different issues,” said Justin Driver, a constitutional law scholar and professor at Yale Law School.

If the teacher wants to give a pop quiz about a book most kids have read, they’d have to write a completely different test for kids who opted out, Driver said. Teachers could end up refereeing “dueling free exercise claims” from parents with opposing religious beliefs. Teachers would have to avoid stigmatizing children who’ve opted out, as well as children who see themselves in the content other kids are skipping.

Given past court decisions, it’s unlikely the justices would confine opt-outs to certain topics or student grade levels, Driver added.

“Just because some people may be uneasy with this sort of material today, it doesn’t mean that the federal judiciary should be commandeering local control over public schools,” said Driver, who co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Montgomery County Public Schools.

"Prince & Knight" by Daniel Haack tells the story of two men who battle a dragon and fall in love. Some Montgomery County parents objected to their kids reading about a gay relationship and marriage on religious grounds.

Glenn Branch, the deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, has seen how this can play out.

Sometimes it’s easy for teachers to come up with alternative assignments. When parents object to their kids dissecting animals, Branch said, teachers can swap in a plastic or virtual model.

But when religious parents object to their kids learning about evolution, there really isn’t a substitute, Branch said. Evolution comes up so many times in biology class — from learning about the structure of a cell to taxonomy to genetics — that teachers would need “revolving doors” for kids to cycle in and out. That would be disruptive for their classmates, too.

“It would be kind of like saying: ‘Well, we’re not going to do fractions,’ in a math course,” Branch said.

Lawsuit’s supporters: Opt-out right isn’t burden on schools

Lawyers and scholars in the parents’ camp, meanwhile, say giving parents the right to opt out of certain content on religious grounds wouldn’t dramatically change public education.

Nearly all states permit opt-outs for sex ed or lessons on human sexuality, they note. Texas permits parents to opt their kids out of lessons on any topic for religious or moral reasons.

“A lot of school districts are, in fact, already doing what the parents are asking for here,” said Stanberry, the parents’ attorney.

Douglas Laycock, a constitutional law scholar and law professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas, said he did not expect schools to be flooded with opt-out requests. Laycock, who co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the parents, added that the topics parents will likely object to are predictable: sex and evolution.

If students skip broad swaths of the curriculum, that shouldn’t come without consequences, he said. For example, a student could opt out of evolution lessons, he said, but then “you can’t get credit for biology.”

Still, he can imagine a scenario in which schools get overloaded with parents’ opt-out requests.

“If you have large numbers of people demanding alternative assignments for lots of different parts of the curriculum, at some point it’s going to become unworkable,” he said. But if parents’ requests are limited to a smaller piece of the curriculum, as he believes they were in Montgomery County, schools should be able to make that work.

The reason the school district got so many opt-out requests, he added, is because the curriculum was age-inappropriate and lacked broad community support.

Stanberry, too, could imagine another case in which the school district’s responsibility to educate children — especially in core subjects like reading and math — could trump a parent’s religious right to skip that content.

“When it comes to matters that are particularly sensitive to religion, especially matters of human sexuality, gender identity,” he said, “that’s a place where parents should get to decide.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

A Maine pole vaulter cleared the bar to win the state title. Waiting below was Donald Trump.

2025-04-12T00:05:31+00:00

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The winning pole vault at Maine’s Class B girls’ track and field championship in February missed the state record by 7 inches. But it was high enough to catapult Maine to the top of President Donald Trump’s enemies list.

Two weeks before that competition, Trump had signed an executive order aimed at “keeping men out of women’s sports.” The order threatened to withhold federal funding from any school that allowed athletes assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ or women’s sports.

The pole vaulter who clinched the girls’ state title was a trans athlete from a school district of 1,850 in the suburbs of Portland on Maine’s southern coast.

That same day, a Republican state legislator shared the 10th grader’s picture on Facebook, later calling it “unfair, unsafe, and unacceptable” that she had been allowed to compete. Conservative news outlets boosted the story.

The issue came to a head a few days later at a White House governors luncheon, where Trump told Maine Gov. Janet Mills that she better comply with his executive order or Maine wouldn’t get any federal funding. “See you in court,” Mills replied curtly.

That viral exchange set off a battle over not just who is protected by Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination in education, but how far the president can take his aggressive and unusual approach to civil rights enforcement to reshape American education.

The Trump administration launched two overlapping civil rights investigations that rapidly determined Maine had violated Title IX. Maine officials say they are complying with their state’s human rights law, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, and don’t plan to back down. Now the Trump administration is taking Maine to court and moving to strip the state of its K-12 education funding — an unprecedented step.

That move could instill fear in states and schools that have policies similar to Maine’s. Educators and officials could now be wondering if they’ll be the focus of such an investigation themselves, and whether they’re ready to risk hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to hold onto those rules and beliefs.

What’s happening in Maine comes as the Trump administration wages war with numerous colleges and several state K-12 leaders over antisemitism on campus and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, respectively.

Federal officials are conducting at least 18 other investigations into school districts, state education agencies, and state athletics associations over policies involving transgender students, according to a tracker compiled by Education Week. There’s now a Title IX special investigations team tasked with wrapping up investigations quickly and preparing them for litigation.

Those backing the Trump administration’s actions say the president’s position — far from being radical — is supported by the law, common sense, and the general public.

Teresa Manning, the policy director at the National Association of Scholars, a nonprofit that advocates for conservative education policies, said the phrase “on the basis of sex” in Title IX should be interpreted by its “plain meaning” that there are two sexes, male and female, and those don’t change.

“What the Trump administration is doing is simply maintaining the status quo of how Title IX has been interpreted for 50 years,” Manning said. “It’s not like the executive orders are anything new.”

Seth Galanter, who served in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during the Biden and Obama administrations, said a big reason the Maine case matters is how it will “affect trans athletes and their lives, and their ability to participate in sports.”

But he also believes the outcome of the dispute matters for all kinds of students.

“This is really an administration that is trying to bully people and schools to do what they want by discarding all the protections and norms that usually accompany a civil rights investigation,” said Galanter, who worked in the Education Department until January. “If they can do that successfully around trans kids, then they can do it around kids with disabilities, or English learner kids, or other kids who really need federal protection.”

Why trans girls playing sports is key issue for Trump

Trump made the participation of trans athletes on girls’ and women’s sports teams a signature issue of his presidential campaign. He and his supporters have said that athletes who were assigned male at birth have an unfair physical advantage over their competitors whose birth sex was female.

When trans girls medal in sporting competitions, they say, it takes honors away from cisgender girls and could reduce their shot at a college scholarship. Some cisgender girls feel uncomfortable undressing in front of trans girls in the locker room.

“A sport I had loved and had put my heart into became a sport that was painful and a constant reminder of the physical abilities that I do not have,” the Maine 12th grader who tied for second place in the girls’ pole vault championship wrote in an opinion piece for the Portland Press Herald. “How were we expected to compete with someone who would always physically dominate?”

Advocates for trans athletes, meanwhile, say it’s crucial for kids to be able to play on teams that correspond with their gender identity so they feel included at school. Trans kids are at a much higher risk for depression and suicide, and playing sports can help with self-esteem and mental health.

“Leadership, teamwork, being a good loser and a good winner — all those great benefits that sports provide, which is why sports are an important part of your education — that needs to be available to all of our students, including our transgender students,” said Sarah McDaniel, who has a trans son and is the president of the Portland chapter of PFLAG, which supports the families and friends of LGBTQ people.

Trump’s executive order focused on student athletics wasn’t his only directive focused on gender. On the first day of his second term, he also signed an executive order stating that the federal government would recognize only two sexes, male and female, and that the definition of “sex” under federal law did not include gender identity.

That helped form the policy backbone for his early February directive about trans athletes.

In addition to its threat to strip federal funds from any educational program with policies deemed “unfair to female athletes”, the executive order expressed the Trump administration’s opposition to “male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

President Trump signed an executive order in early February seeking to ban trans girls from playing on girls' and women's sports teams. He was joined by supporters like Riley Gaines (center), a former competitive swimmer who has advocated for excluding trans women from women's athletics.

That executive order also urged athletics organizations and states to change policies that allow trans girls to compete in women’s sports, even if they “reduce the testosterone in their bodies below certain levels or provide documentation of ‘sincerely held’ gender identity.”

Manning said the Trump administration’s swift approach to enforcing Title IX matches the issue’s urgency: “The threat to these women is happening right now. It is, right now, a violation of Title IX.”

It’s also a “political no-brainer,” Manning said, pointing to polling from January by the New York Times and Ipsos that found 79% of American adults do not think trans women should be allowed to compete on women’s sports teams. That finding mirrors other recent polls.

Trump administration takes unusual civil rights approach

The federal government’s treatment of Maine is unprecedented, multiple legal experts told Chalkbeat, from the way it carried out its investigations to the severity of the consequences it has imposed.

The Education Department has a backlog of civil rights cases and recently fired hundreds of civil rights attorneys. But it chose to open the Maine investigation unprompted by any complaints.

While any agency that gives federal funds to an educational institution can enforce Title IX, the Education Department typically leads the charge because it has the most expertise. But in this case, the Department of Health and Human Services, which usually investigates medical schools and hospital training programs, opened the first investigation, followed by the Education Department.

Both decided Maine had violated Title IX within a few weeks — though these kinds of investigations typically take many months to conclude.

Neither federal agency requested any data or documents or attempted to interview anyone from the Maine Department of Education before issuing their findings, said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the Maine attorney general’s office, which is representing the state’s education agency.

The Education Department’s draft agreement contained five pages of demands, including stripping any trans girl who’s ever placed in a Maine girls sports competition of her title and giving it to the athlete behind her with an apology letter. Maine should have received 90 days to consider that proposal, according to the agency’s manual. Maine got just 10.

There’s a clear process for investigating potential civil rights violations, said R. Shep Melnick, a professor of American politics at Boston College who’s studied Title IX and civil rights. The Trump administration has “done none of that.”

“I’ve been critical of OCR in the past under Biden and Obama for using investigations basically to get schools to do what they want without following these procedures, but this is far worse,” Melnick said.

The Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies targeted Maine, too.

Neither the Education Department nor the Agriculture Department responded to Chalkbeat’s questions regarding the Trump administration’s Title IX enforcement strategy and its probes in Maine.

In response to a list of questions, Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for HHS, directed Chalkbeat to a two-sentence social media post from March 28 in which the department said it had referred its Maine Title IX investigation to the Justice Department. “HHS will continue to protect women’s sports and keep the promises of Title IX,” the post states.

Who gets to define ‘sex’?

Many biologists now think sex is more complicated than the male and female binary. But Title IX is “completely silent” on the issue of transgender athletes and does not spell out whether schools should require trans athletes to play on teams that correspond with their birth sex or their gender identity, Melnick said.

Congress could pass a law to define sex under Title IX. Or the Trump administration could go through the lengthy formal rule-making process. The Biden administration tried to define sex to include gender identity in a rule, but a federal judge threw it out. A separate Biden administration proposal that ultimately could have allowed high schools and colleges to restrict the participation of trans athletes never made it across the finish line.

The Trump administration has said Title IX “forbids” trans girls from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, and allowing them to do so is an outright violation of the law.

But multiple civil rights experts told Chalkbeat that’s not how Title IX is enforced under the 1979 policy interpretation that governs the Education Department’s civil rights investigations.

It’s a Title IX violation if girls lack equal access to athletics in the aggregate. For example, an investigator concerned about whether girls had the same access to athletic gear as boys would look at the equipment used by all teams, not just the tennis team.

“Identical benefits, opportunities, or treatment are not required, provided the overall effects of any differences is negligible,” the 1979 policy states.

On top of that, there are federal court rulings in two cases, one in the Ninth Circuit and another in the Fourth Circuit, that have upheld the rights of trans girls to play on teams that correspond with their gender identity.

Those cases are ongoing. But the Trump administration hasn’t said why the 14 states bound by those decisions should not follow them, Galanter said.

“It’s just completely unclear what their legal theory is here,” Galanter said.

Issue of trans athletes continues to divide Maine

On Friday, the Maine attorney general’s office told the Trump administration that the state wouldn’t agree to the Education Department’s Title IX resolution. Maine offered no counter-proposals.

“Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams,” Maine’s assistant attorney general, Sarah Forster, wrote.

In response, the Education Department said it had referred the case to the Justice Department and would start the administrative process to take away Maine’s K-12 education funding. That includes discretionary grants and formula funds, the department said, which covers Title I dollars for high-poverty schools and IDEA grants for children with disabilities.

“Governor Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom — be careful what you wish for,” Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said Friday in a statement. “Now she will see the Trump Administration in court.”

Hayes, of the Maine attorney general’s office, declined to comment further, and the Education Department did not respond to follow-up questions from Chalkbeat.

Galanter worried a Justice Department lawsuit against Maine could make even school districts and states with gender-affirming athletics policies “really scared to have trans kids play sports, or even worse, have kids who people think are trans play on sports teams.”

“There is no way to enforce gender that isn’t gross, weird, a complete invasion of privacy,” said Bre Danvers-Kidman, the executive co-director of MaineTransNet, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of transgender people in Maine. Kids think: “I don’t want to have to show somebody my junk to play softball.”

The issue continues to divide people in Maine.

Republican state lawmakers introduced several bills to restrict the participation of trans athletes on sports teams. Mills, Maine’s Democratic governor, said the issue is “worthy of a debate” but that for now, she will defend the state’s current laws.

Maine's Greely High School was thrust into the national spotlight after a Republican state legislator posted a photo on social media of a trans student at the school who won a state pole vaulting championship.

Hundreds of people recently turned out to a rally to support trans youth outside Greely High School, where the winning pole vaulter is a student, including several of her classmates.

Maine School Administrative District 51, which includes Greely, did not sign a resolution agreement with HHS, but the school district responded to the Education Department’s probe.

The district had less than two weeks to reply to dozens of requests, said Melissa Hewey, the attorney representing the district, including for rosters of every girls sports team and any trans athletes playing on them, and a breakdown of how the district’s fields and equipment compare for boys and girls.

Maine has a long tradition of standing up for what it believes in, “even in the face of political pressures,” said Danvers-Kidman, who’s listened to how angry this situation has made trans kids in meetings across the state.

For their sake, Danvers-Kidman hopes Maine stands its ground.

Chalkbeat national editor Erica Meltzer contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

A big change for kids with disabilities is underway, Trump says. Critics say it’s against the law.

2025-03-24T14:52:06+00:00

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President Donald Trump made a brief announcement Friday morning of a policy that could upend how the nation serves its 7.5 million students with disabilities.

Offering virtually no details, Trump said he’d decided that the Department of Health and Human Services would handle students’ “special needs” instead of the Education Department.

“Rather complex,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I think that will work out very well.”

But many legal experts and advocates for children with disabilities say the president does not have the authority to move funding or oversight of special education to another agency. That would require an act of Congress, they say.

Many educators, parents, and disability rights advocates worry that the president will try to move forward anyway, and that this plan could end up stripping children with disabilities of legally required educational support and services — and sideline them in an agency that doesn’t have the expertise, staff, or training to properly serve them.

“There was a recognition that the education of students with disabilities should occur alongside non-disabled students,” when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, was signed into law in 1975, said Robyn Linscott, the director of education and family policy at The Arc, which advocates for children with disabilities.

“To be able to say that students with disabilities are this monolith and we can just pluck them out of the general population of students and plop them into a different agency,” Linscott said, “is just bonkers.”

What the law says about Education Department’s role

IDEA predates the creation of the federal Education Department by four years, and was enacted when education fell under what was then known as the Health, Education, and Welfare Department.

IDEA would remain on the books even if the Education Department ceased to exist. But advocates said enforcement of the law is bound up in the infrastructure of the Education Department, as the two evolved together. Students with disabilities are part of nearly every other education law, from school accountability to higher education access.

In the hours since Trump’s announcement, neither the Education Department nor the Health and Human Services Department has offered any concrete details, including exactly what responsibilities would move to HHS and when.

In response to a list of questions, an Education Department spokesperson referred Chalkbeat to a short video clip of a Friday afternoon interview with Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in which she said that “some” of the programs that fall under IDEA would be given to Health and Human Services. She did not specify which ones, and the Education Department did not respond to follow-up questions.

Emily Hilliard, the deputy press secretary at HHS, responded to a list of questions by pointing Chalkbeat to a social media post by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which he said his agency “is fully prepared to take on the responsibility of supporting individuals with special needs” and that his agency would “make the care of our most vulnerable citizens our highest national priority.”

Multiple laws say the Education Department is responsible for overseeing and funding the education of children with disabilities.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act established the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services within the Education Department and said that it must include an Office of Special Education Programs, “which shall be the principal agency in the Department for administering and carrying out” IDEA, along with “other programs and activities concerning the education of children with disabilities.”

The law that created the Department of Education said the department must include an Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

IDEA also says the education secretary is responsible for administering IDEA grants. The most recent budget laws give control of IDEA funds to the Department of Education and say those funds can’t just be transferred to another agency.

“If they’re trying to just completely eliminate ED’s responsibility to oversee IDEA and the things that are required in statute, they can’t do that,” said Blair Wriston, the senior manager of government affairs for EdTrust, a nonprofit that advocates for students’ civil rights. “That’s illegal. It would require an act of Congress.”

McMahon has said she would work with Congress to shrink the Education Department.

It’s unclear what part of HHS would oversee special education. Some disability rights advocates say it could be the Administration for Community Living, which supports adults with disabilities, or the Administration for Children and Families, which includes the federal preschool program Head Start and child welfare.

Would special education become an afterthought at HHS?

Many advocates for students with disabilities, some of whom spoke to Chalkbeat before Trump’s comments Friday, have significant concerns about moving special education to HHS.

The department is a massive agency whose responsibilities include approving new drugs, responding to emerging diseases, and administering Medicare and Medicaid. Advocates fear that special education would be an afterthought at the agency and that employees there lack the necessary expertise to interact with state education agencies and school districts about the services kids are legally entitled to receive.

Several education advocates expressed concern that Kennedy would oversee services for children with disabilities. Senators were not able to press Kennedy during his confirmation hearing about his knowledge and approach to educating children with disabilities, as they were McMahon.

“RFK Jr. has repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of autism as a real diagnosis,” Keri Rodrigues, the president of the National Parents Union, said in a statement. “Putting someone with this perspective in charge of children’s services — especially for children with disabilities — is a betrayal of families who have fought for decades to secure educational rights and protections for their kids.”

Denise Marshall, the CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, said that her members oppose moving special education to Health and Human Services.

“That department does not have the expertise or the knowledge, not only about what the law requires but about best practices, about what works, and about ensuring that students with disabilities learn to read and write and do math and graduate at higher percentages,” she said.

Education Department staffers understand how IDEA money is supposed to be spent and have experience providing guidance and support to states on how to use their funds legally and effectively, said Lindsay Kubatzky, the director of policy and advocacy for the nonprofit National Center for Learning Disabilities.

A large share of cases filed with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights — more than half in many years — involve students with disabilities.

Nicole Fuller, a policy manager who works with Kubatzky, said the special education and civil rights offices work closely together to make sure schools have the resources and knowledge to appropriately serve students with disabilities. She doesn’t trust that states would do the same.

Texas, for example, maintained an unofficial cap on identifying students with disabilities. The result was that many students missed out on services they were legally entitled to and struggled in school.

State education officials denied there was ever a cap, but the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights under the first Trump administration found widespread violations and ordered the state to rectify the situation.

“It did really take that oversight and insistence for Texas to do the right thing,” Fuller said.

Advocates also fear it represents a return to viewing disabilities as medical problems that need to be fixed.

“It feels like moving your public school district from the leadership of a superintendent to the leadership of your local hospital CEO,” said Jennifer Coco, the interim executive director at the Center for Learner Equity, a nonprofit that advocates for students with disabilities. “It fundamentally misunderstands disability.”

Public schools have not always lived up to the “bold, significant” promise in IDEA that every child should get a free and appropriate education, Coco and other advocates acknowledge.

“I don’t think that’s grounds to throw out the promise or to throw out the systems that make sure that promise is fulfilled,” Coco said.

This story has been updated to reflect a change in Jennifer Coco’s title. Nicole Fuller is based in Washington, D.C., not Texas.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Las escuelas temen el impacto del recorte en las comidas gratuitas

2025-03-22T03:50:19+00:00

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Todas las escuelas del condado de LaRue, en Kentucky, ofrecen desayuno y almuerzo gratis a cualquier estudiante que lo desee.

Así ha sido durante una década, desde que el gobierno federal puso en marcha un programa que permitió a las escuelas del condado de LaRue, junto con miles de distritos en todo el país, omitir la documentación sobre los ingresos familiares.

En estas comunidades, muchos niños ya reciben asistencia gubernamental por los bajos ingresos familiares. Entonces, las autoridades federales encontraron una forma de optimizar el programa de comidas subsidiadas: en vez de comprobar los ingresos de cada familia, calcularon los costos según el número de niños que reciben programas de ayuda.

Sin embargo, las escuelas del condado de LaRue podrían perder este beneficio si se aprueban los recortes a los programas sociales que impulsan los republicanos en el Congreso. Según los legisladores republicanos, su propuesta busca que la ayuda llegue únicamente a las familias que cumplen con los requisitos y que los fondos federales se concentren en los estudiantes con mayores necesidades. Advierten que de esa manera, los subsidios federales para la comida en las escuelas sería más sustentable. No obstante, una estimación indica que las consecuencias del plan de los republicanos podrían perjudicar a casi una cuarta parte de los estudiantes de las escuelas públicas del país.

Estudios han encontrado que garantizar comidas gratuitas universales en las escuelas puede mejorar la asistencia escolar, elevar los resultados académicos y reducir las suspensiones. Probablemente se debe a que elimina el estigma que muchos estudiantes sienten al recibirlas. Entonces, quitar el beneficio a gran escala podría afectar desde la economía de las familias hasta el desempleo en las comunidades locales.

Stephanie Utley, directora de nutrición infantil del distrito de LaRue County, señaló que, inevitablemente, menos niños consumirán los alimentos escolares. Ya sea porque sus familias ya no cumplen con los requisitos para recibir desayuno y almuerzo gratuitos o porque no pueden presentar los documentos necesarios para comprobar sus ingresos.

Si menos estudiantes reciben las comidas escolares, los costos para el distrito se vuelven más difíciles de manejar. Para ajustarse al presupuesto, Utley señaló que posiblemente tendrían que reemplazar productos de alta calidad por alternativas más económicas.

Las manzanas y la carne de res de granjas locales desaparecerían del menú. En la high school servirían menos ensaladas, ya que su preparación requiere demasiado trabajo. Y el popular sándwich de pechuga de pollo sería reemplazado por una hamburguesa de pollo procesado.

Utley también señaló que podría verse obligada a despedir personal, lo que afectaría la economía de la comunidad rural.

“Somos el comedor más grande de la comunidad”, dijo. “Sería una pesadilla”.

Las propuestas del Partido Republicano sobre comidas escolares afectarían a los estados

Para compensar los recortes fiscales promovidos por el presidente Donald Trump, los legisladores republicanos están debatiendo tres propuestas que serían “devastadoras” para los niños y las escuelas, advierte Erin Hysom, analista principal de nutrición infantil en Food Research & Action Center.

Una de las propuestas aumentaría considerablemente el porcentaje de estudiantes que deben estar inscritos en programas de asistencia, como SNAP (Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria) y TANF (Asistencia Temporal para Familias Necesitadas). Solo así, las escuelas podrían seguir ofreciendo comidas gratuitas a todos los alumnos bajo la Disposición de Elegibilidad Comunitaria.

Actualmente, las escuelas pueden participar en la Disposición de Elegibilidad Comunitaria si el 25% de sus estudiantes están inscritos en alguno de los programas de asistencia. La propuesta republicana en la Cámara de Representantes elevaría el umbral al 60%, un nivel sin precedentes. Como resultado, más de 24,000 escuelas perderían el acceso a esta disposición y aproximadamente 12 millones de estudiantes dejarían de calificar automáticamente para comidas gratuitas, según estimaciones de la organización de Hysom.

En esencia, solo las comunidades donde casi todos los niños califican para almuerzos gratuitos o a precio reducido podrían seguir ofreciendo comidas sin costo a todos los estudiantes.

“Han elevado el umbral de pobreza a su nivel más alto”, dijo Hysom. “No podría ser más alto que eso”.

Según la segunda propuesta, las familias que no reciben automáticamente comidas gratuitas a través de programas como SNAP tendrían que presentar documentación que justifique sus ingresos al solicitar el beneficio. La implementación de este requisito añadiría una carga administrativa tanto para las familias como para las escuelas, lo que aumentaría la burocracia. Como efecto, las escuelas podrían verse obligadas a reducir el personal que diseña los menús y prepara los alimentos.

A partir de los ajustes, se generaría un ahorro de 12 mil millones de dólares en un período de 10 años. Así lo indica el documento con la lista de propuestas difundido por el congresista republicano Jodey Arrington, presidente del comité de presupuesto de la Cámara de Representantes.

La tercera propuesta realizaría cambios en los criterios de elegibilidad para SNAP, lo cual probablemente privaría a más de un millón de estudiantes el acceso a la elegibilidad automática para recibir comidas escolares gratuitas. La modificación además, incrementaría la carga de trámites administrativos.

Todo haría que los estados con programas de comidas escolares gratuitas universales enfrenten mayores costos para mantenerlos, ya que dependen en gran medida de los reembolsos federales. Algunos estados ya están evaluando si podrían seguir financiando las comidas gratuitas para todos los estudiantes.

La administración de Trump ya eliminó un programa del Departamento de Agricultura, valorado en mil millones de dólares, que permitía a las escuelas adquirir alimentos de productores locales.

Los recortes en las comidas escolares gratuitas tendrían efectos en cadena

Si menos niños pueden acceder a comidas gratuitas en la escuela, más familias podrían enfrentar dificultades a la hora de realizar las compras para el hogar. Muchas familias que no cumplen con los requisitos para recibir comidas gratuitas tienen problemas para cubrir el costo de la comida. Durante este año escolar, una familia de cuatro miembros podía acceder al programa de comidas escolares gratuitas si su ingreso anual era inferior a $40,560.

Tras la pandemia, las escuelas dejaron de ofrecer comidas gratuitas para todos los estudiantes, lo que provocó un incremento en la deuda por comidas escolares impagas. Según el personal escolar, la situación solo se agravará si estas propuestas son implementadas.

En este momento, las escuelas verifican los ingresos familiares en solo el 3% de las solicitudes. Si se les exigiera revisar cada solicitud, la carga administrativa sería abrumadora, advierten el personal escolar y los defensores de la alimentación infantil.

Las familias que se las ingenian para subsistir con múltiples trabajos podrían tener problemas para recopilar todos los documentos que se requieren para demostrar sus ingresos. Aunque los niños pueden acceder a las comidas escolares sin importar su estatus migratorio, los padres indocumentados podrían tener miedo de proporcionar documentos personales. Especialmente en un contexto de amenazas de deportaciones masivas por parte de Trump.

“Los niños que califican van a quedar fuera del sistema”, advirtió Hysom.

De acuerdo con una encuesta de 2024 realizada a casi 1,400 directores de nutrición escolar, muchas escuelas ya están lidiando con dificultades económicas debido al aumento en los costos de los alimentos y la mano de obra. Además, deben cumplir con nuevas normativas más estrictas que regulan los niveles de sal y azúcar en las comidas escolares.

Las escuelas están obligadas a comprar la mayor parte de sus alimentos de proveedores estadounidenses, pero si Trump impone ciertos aranceles a largo plazo, eso podría generar nuevas dificultades económicas.

“El costo es una preocupación importante”, afirmó Diane Pratt-Heavner, vocera de la Asociación de Nutrición Escolar, la cual representa a los directores de nutrición de las escuelas y llevó a cabo la encuesta. “Si los aguacates o tomates importados de México se vuelven mucho más caros, eso provocará un incremento en la demanda de productos cultivados en el país, lo que también hará subir los precios”.

Shannon Gleave, presidenta de la Asociación de Nutrición Escolar, comprende la importancia de garantizar que el programa de comidas escolares funcione correctamente.

En el Distrito Escolar Primario de Glendale, Arizona, donde Gleave es directora de alimentación y nutrición, los estudiantes pueden avanzar rápidamente en la fila del almuerzo, ya que todos tienen derecho a comidas gratuitas. Aun así, el personal escanea sus credenciales para garantizar que cada niño reciba solo una ración y que quienes tienen restricciones en sus dietas reciban la comida correcta.

Según ella, elevar ligeramente los requisitos de verificación podría ser factible. Sin embargo, revisar el 100% de las solicitudes “no es una forma eficiente de utilizar el tiempo”.

“En este momento, mi equipo no tiene la capacidad de hacer eso”, dijo. “Es necesario encontrar un punto medio entre gestionar bien los recursos y evaluar el peso administrativo que esto supondría”.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es reportera senior de educación a nivel nacional y reside en Chicago. Para contactarla puedes escribir a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump Education Department decimates office serving 5 million English learners in public schools

2025-03-21T19:35:02+00:00

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President Donald Trump has declared English the official language of the United States.

But his administration has fired nearly every Education Department staffer who ensured states and schools properly spent the hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked to help over 5 million students learning English.

It appears that just one staffer remains from the Office of English Language Acquisition, or OELA, after the Trump administration announced last week it would cut the Education Department staff in half.

“Your organizational unit is being abolished along with all positions within the unit – including yours,” an official with the department’s human resources team told the laid-off OELA staffers in a March 12 email.

Two days later, an administration official told state officials that the department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education would take over the OELA.

Advocates for English learners and outgoing Education Department staffers worry the deep cuts to OELA will have serious effects on students, families, and school staff. Without a dedicated office to keep an eye on spending, they fear federal dollars won’t reach the English learners they’re intended to serve, and that the quality of teacher training will suffer.

“There won’t be any more staff to provide guardrails on the federal funding,” said one laid-off OELA staffer who spoke with Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation from the Trump administration. “Ultimately, it will affect the quality of education that English learners get across the nation.”

Among those expressing concerns is an official who led the OELA — and helped maintain it as a standalone office — during Trump’s first term.

Adding to the uncertainty is Trump’s executive order that he said will close the Education Department. The president said Thursday before he signed the order that the federal government will preserve high-profile programs at the department, but did not mention its office for English learners.

OELA staff have played a key role in monitoring how states and schools spend $890 million in federal Title III funds, which are allocated based on the number of newly arrived immigrant children and students learning English. When states and schools have questions about whether they can use their money on a certain after-school program or a new family liaison role, OELA staff track down the answers.

The office supports dozens of universities, nonprofits, and others who train bilingual education teachers. It oversees a grant program that helps Native American and Alaska Native children learn English alongside indigenous languages.

And the staff maintain the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, a hub for data, research, and best practices that many schools rely on. Some resources, like a recently released dual language playbook, take over a year to produce.

OELA had 15 staffers in January, according to a staff list posted on the Education Department’s website. The team already had more work than it could handle before the mass layoffs, said Montserrat Garibay, who led OELA during the Biden administration and left her role as the assistant deputy secretary shortly before Trump took office.

“They were overworked,” Garibay said. “It was almost impossible to keep up.”

Hayley Sanon, the acting assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, told state education officials in a March 14 letter that her office would manage Title III funds for English learners, as it did prior to December 2023.

She also said formula funding under the nation’s main federal education law, which includes money for English learners, “will continue to flow normally, and program functions will not be disrupted.”

“The Department is committed to fulfilling its statutory obligation to prepare English learners attain (sic) English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English,” wrote Sanon, who is also the principal deputy assistant secretary at the department.

In response to questions from Chalkbeat, Madi Biedermann, the Education Department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications, reiterated that Title III and OELA would now fall under the elementary and secondary education office. But Biedermann did not respond to questions about why or how many OELA staff are left.

Students learning English have often been denied help

In addition to decimating the English language acquisition office, the Trump administration has eliminated nearly 200 civil rights attorneys who would make sure school districts meet their legal obligations to support English learners.

Some see the elimination of staff who oversee Title III as a precursor to bundling up that money in block grants that states could spend with fewer restrictions. Several Republican governors have championed that idea, but advocates for immigrant children worry that could divert resources away from kids learning English.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon, center, attended the March 20 ceremony at which Trump signed an executive order seeking to close the Education Department. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center second row, has championed the idea of giving states education block grants.

“There’s plenty of districts and states who would do the right thing,” said David Holbrook, the executive director of the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators, which represents state and district staff. “But the reason we have laws, and the reason we see all the regulations, and the reason we have watchdog agencies” is because some would not.

In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in Lau v. Nichols that the San Francisco Unified district violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by failing to provide supplemental English language classes to students of Chinese heritage who did not speak English. The ruling led to significant changes in federal law and regulations, and spurred nationwide efforts to help English learners.

Several school districts, including Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco, entered into court-ordered settlements, known as consent decrees, to better serve English learners. But progress has been slow and uneven, and many English learners are still denied the services they should receive.

Three decades after those court orders, Chicago schools still did not have enough teachers or materials in native languages for English learners. In Denver, nearly 1 in 3 students failed to improve their English skills after two years in the district, test results showed.

Concerns about such issues aren’t confined to students’ English language skills and academic proficiency. Some advocates for English learners worry that Trump’s executive order declaring English as the official language of the United States could lead schools to put less effort into translating documents and conversations for immigrant families.

Then there’s the backdrop of how the president is enforcing immigration policy and who gets to remain in the country legally.

Trump is seeking to deport millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the country, and he cleared the way for immigration arrests to happen at schools. He’s taken away the temporary status that protected hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians from deportation. And Trump has pledged to strip birthright citizenship from children born to undocumented parents on U.S. soil.

Office helped train teachers and supported immigrant families

A dozen OELA staffers got notices that they would be placed on administrative leave as of Friday and terminated in June, according to the union that represents Education Department staffers who are not supervisors.

Two staffers listed in the January directory whose names did not appear on the union layoffs list had phone numbers that no longer worked. Another staffer had an email autoreply saying she was on extended leave.

“I looked at that list and I looked at all of the names on it and I realized: Oh that’s our entire office,” the laid-off OELA staffer said.

That seems to leave only the deputy assistant secretary, Beatriz Ceja, who was still responding to emails from organizations that work with English learners as of last week. Ceja did not respond to an email message or a voicemail from Chalkbeat seeking comment.

The Education Department layoffs are being challenged or questioned on multiple fronts. Twenty-one state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on March 13 challenging the staff cuts, and several members of Congress are probing them. Sheria Smith, a civil rights attorney who was among the laid-off Education Department staffers and president of the union that represents a dozen fired OELA staffers, said she did not think the layoffs complied with the law.

The first Trump administration tried to fold OELA into the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education back in 2018, but the plan ultimately did not come to fruition.

José Viana, who led OELA during the first Trump administration, told Chalkbeat in a written message that he is concerned about the cuts to OELA and “engaged in diplomacy efforts” with the new Trump administration.

“My focus right now is on providing guidance regarding the decisions that have been made, outlining the legal requirements, and working toward solutions that best support multilingual learners,” he wrote.

Oversight of Title III returned to OELA just over a year ago during the Biden administration. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education oversaw Title III funds for 15 years before that.

Garibay led that transition and added four staffers to the team that handled Title III. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona saw the previous staffing level of two as “unacceptable,” Garibay said.

“We put systems in place so we could have better communication,” Garibay said. “Every time I would go to a state, they were just so grateful to have technical assistance.”

There can be benefits to the elementary and secondary education office overseeing Title III, because it can make federal program monitoring more consistent and cut down on some duplicative tasks, Holbrook said. But he also highlighted fears that existing staff won’t have the capacity to take on OELA’s workload.

One of the key roles OELA plays is in supporting universities, nonprofits, and others who train teachers who work with English learners.

Belinda Gimbert, an associate professor in education administration at The Ohio State University, has experienced that firsthand.

Gimbert is the project director for HELPERs, a program that helps pre-service teachers and paraprofessionals get their bilingual education teaching license and that trains existing teachers to work with English learners in small groups.

It also provides support for immigrant families, such as family-school connectors who translate over video chat — a key strategy for engaging Somali parents in central Ohio who speak Maay Maay, which is primarily an oral language. The program received a $3 million, five-year grant from OELA.

When Gimbert had a technical or financial question, she could shoot an email to OELA and they were quick to respond. If she didn’t understand a legal requirement, OELA staff would translate it into plain English and explain what it meant for her program.

Several times, OELA helped Gimbert quickly add a partner so she could serve more Texas schools without going over her original budget. That helped meet the sudden demand for adults to provide English language acquisition services when a wave of immigrant children moved to an area or military families relocated near a base.

“We’ve always had a person to lean on to be able to administer this grant,” Gimbert said. “Everybody is really concerned about making sure that we are in compliance.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

How a Republican plan to cut universal free school meals could affect 12 million students

2025-03-12T18:34:41+00:00

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Every school in Kentucky’s LaRue County provides free breakfast and lunch to any student who wants it.

It’s been that way for a decade, ever since the federal government launched a program allowing LaRue County Schools, and thousands of other districts nationwide, to skip the paperwork asking how much families earn.

In these communities, lots of kids already receive other kinds of assistance for low-income families. Federal officials saw a way to make the subsidized meals program more efficient: Cover meal costs based on how many children are in similar assistance programs, rather than verify every family’s income.

But LaRue County Schools won’t be able to do that anymore if sweeping changes to social programs proposed by congressional Republicans become law. GOP lawmakers say they want to ensure only eligible families get help and that taxpayer dollars are reserved for the neediest students, so that federal subsidies for school meals remain sustainable. But by one estimate, the Republicans’ plan would affect nearly a quarter of the students in the nation’s public schools.

Research has found that universal free school meals can boost school attendance, increase test scores, and decrease suspensions, likely because it eliminates the stigma students often associate with the free meals. Taking them away from students on a large scale could also have downstream effects on everything from families’ household budgets to local unemployment.

Stephanie Utley, the LaRue County district’s director of child nutrition, said that inevitably, fewer kids would eat school meals, either because their families no longer qualify for free breakfast and lunch or because they cannot produce documents to verify their income.

When fewer kids eat school meals, it’s harder for districts to cover their costs. To save money, Utley would likely swap higher-quality foods for cheaper ones, she said.

Apples and beef from local farms would go. The high school would serve fewer salads — they’d be too labor-intensive to prep. And a popular chicken breast sandwich would become a ground chicken patty.

Utley may have to lay off staff, too, she said, which would hurt the rural community’s economy.

“We’re the biggest restaurant in town,” she said. “It would be a nightmare.”

GOP school meals proposals would impact states

Republican lawmakers are considering a trio of proposals to help offset tax cuts sought by President Donald Trump that would be “devastating” to children and schools, said Erin Hysom, the senior child nutrition policy analyst for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center.

One proposal would dramatically increase the share of students who need to be enrolled in aid programs — such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — for schools to be eligible to serve free meals to all kids through the Community Eligibility Provision.

Right now, schools need to show 25% of students are enrolled in those kinds of assistance programs to participate in community eligibility. The House Republican proposal would raise the share to 60% — higher than the threshold has ever been. That would kick more than 24,000 schools off of community eligibility, and some 12 million students would no longer automatically qualify for free meals, Hysom’s organization estimated.

Essentially, only communities where nearly every child qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch could serve free meals to all kids.

“They’ve really moved the needle to the upper echelon of poverty,” Hysom said. “You couldn’t get any higher than that.”

Another proposal would require all families who don’t automatically qualify for free school meals through programs like SNAP to submit documents to verify their income with their application. That would burden families and schools with time-consuming added paperwork. Schools could end up cutting staff who serve food and work on school menus to hire more people to process applications.

Together, those changes would save $12 billion over 10 years, according to the list of proposals circulated by U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, the Republican chair of the House budget committee.

A third proposal would change how families qualify for SNAP and likely make over 1 million students no longer automatically eligible for free school meals. That would increase the paperwork burden even more.

All of that would make it more costly for states with universal free school meals to run their programs, because they rely heavily on federal reimbursement. Some states were already weighing whether they could afford to keep up free meals for all.

These three proposals are part of a process known as budget reconciliation that GOP lawmakers are using to make long-term changes to federal spending and revenue. As of Wednesday, Congress was considering a separate, stopgap budget that would keep funding essentially flat for the Agriculture Department, which pays for the school meal program, through the end of September.

School staff and child nutrition advocates are taking the House’s budget reconciliation proposals seriously. The Trump administration has already cut a $1 billion Agriculture Department program that helped schools buy food from local producers.

Free school meal cutbacks would have ripple effects

If fewer kids have access to free meals at school, more families would likely struggle to afford groceries at home. Many families who don’t qualify for free meals struggle to pay for food. This school year, a family of four qualified for free school meals if they made under $40,560 a year.

When schools eliminated free school meals for all following the pandemic, there was a surge in unpaid school meal debt, an issue school staff say will only intensify if these proposals go through.

Right now, schools typically have to verify the family’s income for 3% of their applications. If schools had to check income for every application, the burden would be enormous, school staff and child nutrition advocates said.

Many families who eke out a living working multiple jobs would have a hard time gathering up all the required documents to show how much they earn. Though children can participate in the school meals program regardless of their immigration status, undocumented parents may be afraid to hand over personal documents when Trump is threatening mass deportations.

“Eligible children are going to fall through the cracks,” Hysom said.

Many schools are already facing financial pressures from higher-than-usual food and labor costs, a 2024 survey of nearly 1,400 school nutrition directors showed. On top of that, schools are navigating new and stricter requirements for how much salt and sugar can be in food served by schools.

Schools have to buy most of their food from American sources, but if Trump puts certain tariffs in place for the long term, that could create new financial constraints.

“Cost is absolutely a concern,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and conducted the survey. “When avocados or tomatoes from Mexico become much more expensive, that will cause an increase in demand for domestic produce, and an increase in price, as well.”

Shannon Gleave, the president of the School Nutrition Association, understands the need to make sure the school meal program runs as it should.

In Arizona’s Glendale Elementary School District, where Gleave is the director of food and nutrition, kids can speed through the lunch line because everyone qualifies for free meals. But staff scan student ID badges to make sure each kid only takes one meal, and that children with dietary restrictions get the right food.

Upping the verification requirements a little could work, she said. But verifying 100% of applications “is not an efficient use of time.”

“There is no way my existing staff could do that now,” she said. “You have to figure out a way to be good stewards of resources, but also look at the amount of administrative burden that it’s going to entail.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

U.S. Department of Education slashes staff

2025-03-12T00:54:22+00:00

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The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it’s cutting its workforce nearly in half — a move that Education Secretary Linda McMahon said is a first step toward eliminating the department.

Roughly a third of staff will lose their jobs through a “reduction in force,” the department said in a press release. Combined with voluntary buyouts, the Education Department will have just under 2,200 employees by the end of the month, compared with 4,133 when President Donald Trump took office with promises to shutter the department.

The layoffs represent a significant escalation of Trump’s efforts to reduce the department’s role in education, which is mostly run by states and school districts. Already, the administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts that paid for education research, technical assistance to states and school districts, and teacher training programs.

Affected staff will be placed on administrative leave starting March 21, the department said. Ahead of the announcement, workers were told to leave the office by 6 p.m. Tuesday and that the office would remain closed until Thursday “for security reasons.” McMahon later said this was standard corporate process when layoffs occur.

“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” McMahon said in a press release. “I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”

The Education Department administers major federal funding programs such as Title I, which provides extra money to high-poverty schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which supports special education. It also investigates civil rights complaints and oversees an accountability system that pushes states to identify low-performing schools and provide them with additional resources.

Exactly how the layoffs will affect specific programs was not immediately clear. A former Education Department staffer, who spoke with Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information, said the entire Office for Civil Rights teams based in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Boston and New York were let go. That represents half of regional civil rights offices.

The department said all divisions are affected but did not describe specific positions that were eliminated. In the press release, department officials said all functions required by law will continue.

Only Congress can eliminate the department, but such deep cuts could leave the department a shell of its former self.

Appearing on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News shortly after the layoffs were announced, McMahon said Trump had given her a clear mandate to shutter the department. She said she would work with Congress to do that. Immediately cutting these positions would help the federal government send more money to the states, she said.

“I said ‘OK we have to identify where the bloat is, where the bureaucracy is, and we’re going to start there,’ McMahon said. “We need to make sure that that money does get to the states.”

Trump is expected to sign an executive order to start the process of eliminating the department, but has not yet done so. Conservatives say that for decades the department has failed to adequately address low academic performance and is a bloated bureaucracy.

On Fox, McMahon reassured viewers that programs such as IDEA would still be funded through congressional appropriations. Asked what IDEA stood for, McMahon responded, “I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for except that it’s programs for disabled needs. It’s my fifth day on the job, and I’m really trying to learn quickly.”

Conservative state school chiefs said in a letter to McMahon last month that they need more flexibility in how to use federal money, rather than following complex rules that ensure specific funding streams benefit certain student groups.

Public education advocates fear that if money flows unrestricted to states, there’s no guarantee it will help the most vulnerable students. Even without an executive order, they worry that administrative changes could affect the department’s ability to perform basic functions.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, condemned the layoffs.

“Denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it,” she said in a statement. “The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country.”

Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employee Local 252, which represents 2,800 Education Department employees, said the union will fight back against the layoffs and against what she called a misinformation campaign about the department’s work.

“We must ask our fellow Americans: do you want your and your children’s rights enforced in school? Do you want your children to have the ability to play sports in their school districts? Do you need financial aid for college? Are you a fellow civil servant that relies on student loan forgiveness? Does your school district offset property taxes with federal funding?” she said in a statement.

“If yes, then you rely on the Department of Education, and the services you rely on and the employees who support them are under attack.”

Shortly after she was confirmed, McMahon sent a message to Education Department staff describing a “final mission” that would affect staffing, budgets, and agency operations.

Department staff were given one-time offers of up to $25,000 to retire or resign in advance of a “very significant reduction in force.” More than 500 employees took some form of buy out.

Another 1,300 employees are losing their jobs through the reduction in force McMahon announced Tuesday.

Employees who are laid off will be paid through June 9.

This story has been updated to include comments from Linda McMahon on Fox News, reaction to the layoffs, and additional information about affected offices.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Immigration arrests at school: How likely are they? We asked experts what to expect.

2025-03-08T01:28:00+00:00

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President Donald Trump has made deporting immigrants without legal status in the U.S. a top priority. Many schools, students, and families have questions about what that means for them.

Confusion has been especially acute since Trump officials cleared the way for immigration arrests to happen at schools, child care centers, school bus stops, and playgrounds. Previously, the federal government had significant limits on immigration enforcement in these areas.

Chalkbeat spoke with half a dozen immigration and legal experts to try to answer some of the most pressing questions.

Can ICE arrest people at schools?

Yes. On Jan. 20, the Trump administration got rid of a longstanding policy that limited when immigration agents could make arrests near schools, hospitals, churches, and other “sensitive locations.” In the past, agents generally had to get permission from a supervisor and show there was some kind of imminent safety threat to enter these places. Now, they can just use their discretion.

But there are several challenges to the policy in court, including at least one from a school district.

Denver Public Schools is seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out the new policy. In its lawsuit, the school district argued the federal policy change caused a decrease in student attendance, especially at schools that serve many new immigrant students. The district also said it had spent “significant time and resources” training staff on what to do if ICE showed up and reaching out to families worried about sending their kids to school.

In response, the Trump administration said there had been no raids at Denver schools, or any other schools, and that the policy change hadn’t caused the district much harm. On Friday, a federal judge decided not to temporarily block arrests at or near schools while the lawsuit continues.

A similar lawsuit that applies to religious institutions, not schools, led a judge to temporarily block the Trump administration from making immigration arrests at or near 1,700 places of worship across the country. A federal judge said allowing ICE to enter houses of worship without a warrant and no “meaningful limitations or safeguards” was likely illegal.

There has not been a final decision in either case, and decisions could be appealed to a higher court.

Is ICE planning on raiding schools?

This is unlikely, several immigration experts told Chalkbeat. That’s because raiding a school could be both tactically difficult and politically damaging.

It’s usually easier to make immigration arrests at a work site, courthouse, or by picking someone up as they leave a local jail.

“Unless there is an imminent threat of a child or a teacher or someone who works at the school is going to cause imminent danger to others, I see no reason to execute some sort of ICE arrest in a school, outside out the political immediacy of trying to chill communities,” said Jason Houser, who served as ICE’s chief of staff under President Joe Biden.

Ken Cuccinelli, who served as the deputy secretary for homeland security during the first Trump administration, said he believed immigration agents would “tend to avoid” enforcement activities at schools and other sensitive locations.

“They know not to kick the door in at a school,” said Cuccinelli, who wrote the immigration section of Project 2025, a conservative policy playbook that the second Trump administration has followed, and is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank.

Conservatives and liberals alike say images of arrests happening at schools would likely not play well with the public. Audio of immigrant children crying in detention facilities who’d been separated from their families helped bring an end to that policy during the first Trump administration. Trump has said that images of immigrant mothers and children boarding buses would make it harder to deport them.

“I think that we are not going to see enforcement on schools precisely for this reason,” said Hector Villagra, the vice president of policy advocacy and community education at MALDEF, a civil rights group, at a January press briefing. “I think the administration knows well that images of ICE agents at schools causing havoc on a school site would be a disaster politically. It would be the child separation situation all over again — sounds and images that they do not want publicized.”

When ICE has taken action near schools, was it more likely to target children or adults?

ICE agents have typically targeted adults, not children, at or near schools.

The biggest risk for an interaction with an ICE agent comes when a parent or caregiver is leaving a school after dropping off their child, said Austin Kocher, a research assistant professor at Syracuse University who has studied anti-deportation activism.

Last week in Chicago, for example, an adult in a vehicle was detained while dropping off two students at school. These kinds of arrests sometimes happened when the sensitive locations policy was in effect, too.

“The moment when an adult drives away in a vehicle without their kid with them, all of a sudden they’re the lowest-hanging fruit,” Kocher said.

But Cuccinelli said he did not “expect ICE to target drop off and pick up time so they can round up a bunch of people in transit.”

The most common reason ICE would visit a school, Cuccinelli said, would be to pick up students whose parents were arrested in a workplace raid or elsewhere as a way to keep the family unit together.

Still, it’s possible children and teens could be stopped on their way to or from school, work, or a school event. Last month, schools in Texas were told that the U.S. Border Patrol would not target school buses or children for immigration enforcement.

But last week in New Mexico, border patrol agents boarded a bus filled with Las Cruces Public Schools students to check their legal status. The Border Patrol told local reporters it was a routine stop of a charter bus without any school markings — the students were traveling to a swim competition.

Do schools have to let ICE in?

Under certain circumstances, yes.

Typically, local and state officials can bar entry to spaces that the public can’t just wander through, said Amanda Frost, who specializes in immigration and citizenship law at the University of Virginia’s School of Law. Public schools usually restrict their entrances and check the identity of visitors before they can enter the building.

If ICE has a warrant signed by a judge or magistrate, they can enter the school, immigration and legal experts said. But often ICE presents an administrative warrant signed by ICE officials. That’s not good enough, Frost said, because it has to be signed by someone outside the executive branch of government.

“You can’t access non-public spaces if you’re a federal government officer or state officer without a judicial warrant,” Frost said. “That’s a Fourth Amendment to the Constitution limitation on searches and seizures.”

Some schools have said they will only permit ICE agents to enter the building if they have a warrant for a criminal offense. Illegally crossing the U.S. border is a civil offense, but if the person is deported and reenters, it can become a criminal one. It’s unclear that schools could deny ICE entry if they have a judicial warrant for a civil offense.

“To me, federal law is supreme,” Frost said.

Still, schools have the right to review and challenge the validity of a judicial warrant, Villagra said. And a warrant might allow an immigration agent to search a specific teen’s locker, for example, but that doesn’t mean ICE could then search the gym or school counselor’s office, Villagra said.

What should immigrant families know about their rights?

In Chicago, "know your rights" fliers went up in neighborhoods where many immigrant families live shortly after President Donald Trump's administration announced that immigration agents would be permitted to make arrests near schools, churches, and other "sensitive" locations.

ImmSchools, a nonprofit that works with school districts to make schools welcoming for immigrant students, has “know your rights” guides for students and families in English, Spanish, Korean, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. They include tips on seeking legal advice, how to create a family preparedness and child care plan, and what students and parents can do if they are stopped by an ICE agent.

The National Immigration Law Center also put together an FAQ for school leaders and educators about how they can protect students’ rights.

Some school districts have seen drops in attendance as families have kept their kids home for fear of encountering ICE. But immigrant rights advocates caution this decision isn’t free of risks either.

Several states have laws requiring children to attend school, and parents can be charged, fined, or punished in other ways if their children miss a lot of class. Truant children can be referred to juvenile court and lose their driving privileges in some states.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Detenciones migratorias en las escuelas: ¿Es algo que puede suceder? Consultamos a expertos sobre lo que podría pasar.

2025-03-07T01:25:23+00:00

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Deportar a inmigrantes sin estatus legal en los Estados Unidos es una de las máximas prioridades del presidente Donald Trump. Esto ha generado dudas entre escuelas, estudiantes y familias sobre cómo les afectará.

La incertidumbre se ha intensificado desde que la administración de Trump eliminó las restricciones a los arrestos migratorios en escuelas, centros de cuidado infantil, paradas de autobús escolares y áreas de juego. Anteriormente, el gobierno federal imponía límites significativos a estas acciones en dichos espacios.

Con el fin de abordar las inquietudes más urgentes, Chalkbeat conversó con seis expertos en leyes e inmigración.

¿ICE tiene autoridad para hacer arrestos en las escuelas?

Sí. El 20 de enero, la administración de Trump eliminó una política de larga data que limitaba los arrestos migratorios cerca de escuelas, hospitales, iglesias y otras “áreas sensibles”. Anteriormente, los agentes necesitaban contar con la autorización de un supervisor y debían demostrar que existía una amenaza inminente a la seguridad para ingresar a estos sitios. Ahora, pueden actuar según su propio criterio.

Sin embargo, esta medida ha sido impugnada en los tribunales en múltiples ocasiones, incluso por un distrito escolar.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver buscan impedir que la administración de Trump implemente la nueva política. En su demanda, el distrito escolar argumentó que el cambio en la normativa federal provocó una disminución en la asistencia estudiantil, especialmente en las escuelas con una alta población de estudiantes inmigrantes recién llegados. Además, el distrito señaló que ha invertido “una cantidad significativa de tiempo y recursos” en capacitar al personal sobre cómo actuar ante la presencia de ICE en las escuelas y en comunicarse con las familias preocupadas por la seguridad de sus hijos en la escuela.

En respuesta, la administración de Trump afirmó que no se habían realizado redadas en las escuelas de Denver ni en ninguna otra escuela, y que la modificación de la política no había generado un daño considerable al distrito.

Una demanda similar, esta vez relacionada con instituciones religiosas en lugar de escuelas, llevó a un juez a suspender temporalmente los arrestos migratorios en más de 1,700 templos en todo el país. Un juez federal dictaminó que permitir el ingreso de ICE a lugares de culto sin una orden judicial y sin restricciones claras probablemente era ilegal.

Aún no hay una decisión final en ninguno de los dos casos, y los fallos podrían ser apelados ante un tribunal superior.

¿Hay planes de ICE para llevar a cabo redadas en escuelas?

Es poco probable, dijeron varios expertos en inmigración a Chalkbeat. Esto se debe a que realizar una redada en una escuela sería tanto un desafío logístico como un riesgo político.

Normalmente, es más sencillo para las autoridades llevar a cabo arrestos migratorios en centros de trabajo, en los tribunales o interceptando a alguien al salir de una prisión local.

“A menos que exista una amenaza inminente de que un niño, un maestro o algún empleado de la escuela represente un peligro inmediato para otros, no veo ninguna razón para llevar a cabo un arresto de ICE en una escuela. Aun así, desde una perspectiva política, el objetivo de infundir temor en las comunidades podría ser un factor”, dijo Jason Houser, quien fue jefe de gabinete de ICE bajo la presidencia de Joe Biden.

Ken Cuccinelli, quien se desempeñó como subsecretario de Seguridad Nacional en la primera administración de Trump, afirmó que, en su opinión, los agentes de inmigración “suelen evitar” llevar a cabo acciones en escuelas y otras áreas sensibles.

“Saben que no pueden derribar la puerta de una escuela”, afirmó Cuccinelli, autor de la sección de inmigración del Proyecto 2025, un plan de políticas conservadoras adoptado por el segundo gobierno de Trump. Actualmente es miembro senior del Centro para la Renovación de América, un think tank conservador.

Tanto conservadores como liberales coinciden en que las imágenes de arrestos en escuelas probablemente generarían una reacción negativa en la opinión pública. Durante el primer gobierno de Trump, el audio de niños inmigrantes llorando en centros de detención tras ser separados de sus familias contribuyó a poner fin a esa política. El propio Trump ha reconocido que ver a madres inmigrantes y sus hijos subiendo a autobuses dificultaría su deportación.

“Considero que no veremos operativos en las escuelas justamente por esta razón”, afirmó Héctor Villagra, vicepresidente de políticas de defensa y educación comunitaria en MALDEF, una organización de derechos civiles, en una rueda de prensa en enero. “Creo que la administración entiende perfectamente que la presencia de agentes de ICE en escuelas, generando caos en las escuelas, sería un desastre político. Sería una repetición del escándalo de la separación de familias, con imágenes y sonidos que no quieren que se hagan públicos”.

Cuando ICE ha llevado a cabo operativos cerca de escuelas, ¿ha enfocado más sus acciones en niños o en adultos?

Los agentes de ICE suelen enfocarse en adultos, no en niños, cuando operan en escuelas o sus alrededores.

El mayor riesgo de un encuentro con un agente de ICE ocurre cuando un padre o cuidador sale de la escuela después de dejar a su hijo, explicó Austin Kocher, profesor asistente de investigación en la Universidad de Syracuse, quien ha estudiado el activismo contra las deportaciones.

Por ejemplo, la semana pasada en Chicago, un adulto fue arrestado mientras dejaba a dos estudiantes en la escuela. Este tipo de detenciones también se producían ocasionalmente bajo la política de áreas sensibles.

“Cuando un adulto se marcha en su auto sin su hijo, se convierte en un objetivo más accesible”, afirmó Kocher.

Sin embargo, Cuccinelli afirmó que no creía que ICE tenga en cuenta los horarios de llegada y recogida para arrestar a varias personas mientras se trasladan.

Cuccinelli explicó que, en la mayoría de los casos, ICE acudiría a una escuela para recoger a estudiantes cuyos padres fueron detenidos en su lugar de trabajo u otro sitio, con la intención de mantener a la familia unida.

Aun así, es posible que niños y adolescentes sean parados en su camino a la escuela o, cuando regresan, en el trabajo o en un evento escolar. El mes pasado, las escuelas en Texas fueron informadas de que la Patrulla Fronteriza de EE.UU. no apuntaría a los autobuses escolares ni a los menores en operativos de inmigración.

Sin embargo, la semana pasada en Nuevo México, agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza subieron a un autobús lleno de estudiantes del Distrito Escolar de Las Cruces para verificar sus estatus migratorios. La Patrulla Fronteriza declaró a medios locales que se trataba de una inspección de rutina en un autobús chárter sin distintivos escolares, cuando los estudiantes viajaban a una competencia de natación.

¿Es obligatorio que las escuelas permitan la entrada de ICE?

En ciertas circunstancias, sí.

Normalmente, los funcionarios locales y estatales tienen la facultad de restringir el acceso a espacios donde el público no puede ingresar sin autorización, indicó Amanda Frost, experta en derecho de inmigración y ciudadanía en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Virginia. Las escuelas públicas, por lo general, limitan sus accesos y exigen la verificación de identidad de los visitantes antes de que puedan ingresar al edificio.

Los expertos en inmigración y derecho señalan que ICE puede entrar a una escuela si cuenta con una orden firmada por un juez o magistrado. No obstante, en muchas ocasiones ICE presenta órdenes administrativas firmadas por sus propios funcionarios. Frost explicó que esto no es válido, ya que la orden debe ser emitida por una autoridad independiente del poder ejecutivo.

“Si eres un agente del gobierno federal o estatal, no puedes acceder a áreas privadas sin una orden judicial”, señaló Frost. “Es una limitación establecida por la Cuarta Enmienda de la Constitución en materia de registros y decomisos”.

Algunas escuelas han declarado que solo permitirán la entrada de agentes de ICE si presentan una orden judicial por un delito penal. Cruzar ilegalmente la frontera de EE.UU. es una ofensa civil, pero si una persona es deportada y reingresa, puede convertirse en un delito penal. No está claro si las escuelas podrían negar el acceso a ICE en caso de una orden judicial por una infracción civil.

“Para mí, la ley federal es suprema”, dijo Frost.

Aun así, las escuelas tienen el derecho de revisar y cuestionar la validez de una orden judicial, señaló Villagra. Una orden podría autorizar a un agente de inmigración a revisar, por ejemplo, el casillero de un estudiante en particular, pero eso no significa que ICE pueda además registrar el gimnasio o la oficina del consejero escolar, agregó.

¿Qué deben saber las familias inmigrantes sobre sus derechos?

ImmSchools, una organización sin fines de lucro que colabora con distritos escolares para hacer que las escuelas sean un espacio acogedor para estudiantes inmigrantes, ofrece guías de ‘Conozca sus derechos’ para estudiantes y familias en inglés, español, coreano, ruso, árabe y chino. Estas incluyen consejos sobre cómo buscar asesoría legal, crear un plan de emergencia familiar y de cuidado infantil, y qué hacer si un estudiante o padre de familia es detenido por un agente de ICE.

En varios barrios de Chicago, se encuentran carteles sobre los derechos de los inmigrantes.

El Centro Nacional de Ley de Inmigración también ha elaborado una guía de preguntas frecuentes para líderes escolares y educadores sobre cómo pueden proteger los derechos de los estudiantes.

Algunos distritos escolares han registrado una disminución en la asistencia, ya que muchas familias han optado por no enviar a sus hijos a la escuela por temor a encontrarse con agentes de ICE. Sin embargo, defensores de los derechos de los inmigrantes advierten que esta decisión también conlleva riesgos.

En varios estados, la ley exige que los niños asistan a la escuela, y los padres pueden enfrentar cargos, multas u otras sanciones si sus hijos faltan demasiado. En algunos estados, los menores que acumulan muchas ausencias pueden ser remitidos a tribunales de menores y perder su licencia de conducir.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es reportera senior de educación a nivel nacional y reside en Chicago. Para contactarla puedes escribir a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Linda McMahon is confirmed as education secretary. DOGE and a department overhaul await her.

2025-03-04T06:31:38+00:00

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Linda McMahon was confirmed Monday as education secretary to lead a department that President Donald Trump has said he wants to dismantle.

McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive and billionaire donor, promised during her confirmation hearing to maintain key education funding streams near current levels and to work with Congress on any reorganization plan for the department.

Many observers expect Trump to sign an executive order soon kicking off that process, though McMahon could develop an overhaul plan without one.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Nebraska Republican, said McMahon had the appropriate background to lead the department. The secretary of education is not some kind of national schools superintendent, he said. Rather, the job involves running a federal bureaucracy, something McMahon showed she could do when she ran the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first administration.

“I have no reason to believe that she cannot run the Department of Education,” Grassley said Monday. “I think she understands the difference between the state and federal role in education. I also expect that she understands the difference between the executive and legislative branches when it comes to the serious policy making of education.”

Several Democratic senators said they opposed McMahon’s nomination because she appeared ready to put herself out of a job, at Trump’s request.

“We can talk about Linda McMahon’s qualifications, or frankly lack thereof,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, who spoke Thursday wearing a T-shirt from the public high school he attended under his suit jacket. “President Trump isn’t looking for someone with the background or the commitment to strengthen education in America. He is looking for someone to destroy it.”

Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, noted that during her confirmation hearing McMahon couldn’t name a single requirement in the main federal education law or say whether teaching African American history would violate the president’s executive order seeking to root out “radical indoctrination” in K-12 schools.

McMahon was confirmed in a 51-45 party line vote.

In an emailed message to department staff, which was also posted to the department website, McMahon described a “final mission” for the agency that would “profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency operations.”

“We must start thinking about our final mission at the department as an overhaul — a last chance to restore the culture of liberty and excellence that made American education great,“ McMahon said. ”Changing the status quo can be daunting. But every staff member of this Department should be enthusiastic about any change that will benefit students."

McMahon will be taking the helm of an Education Department that has already set a dramatically different tone on civil rights enforcement than under the previous administration.

Former President Joe Biden and former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona emphasized equity goals for students of color and immigrant children and tried to enshrine protections for transgender students in law. But under Trump the Office for Civil Rights has already opened several cases related to bathroom access and sports participation by transgender students and threatened Maine’s federal funding.

A Dear Colleague letter to school leaders from the top acting civil rights official warned school districts many common diversity practices could be discriminatory and gave them a two-week deadline to abandon them or risk losing federal funding. That guidance is being challenged in court by three groups, including the American Federation of Teachers.

The Trump administration’s approach raises questions about whether the administration will usher in a smaller role for the federal government or simply a different one. Trump has previously pledged to return control over education to the states.

Meanwhile, the U.S. DOGE Service, the cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, has slashed education research contracts and grants and abruptly closed technical assistance centers that supported states in efforts to improve education. In press releases, the Education Department has linked the canceled programs to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, or said they were wasteful, but provided little information to back up those claims.

The Education Department has not answered questions about who made these decisions or why.

McMahon told senators that she would examine these cuts and might reverse some of them. A source close to McMahon told the Washington Post she was “frustrated” with Musk’s approach.

Trump taps experienced state officials at Education Department

Kendra Cornejo Muñoz, a lead youth organizer for Make the Road Action who was detained for protesting McMahon’s confirmation hearing, said the transgender and immigrant youth she works with in New York City are already terrified to go to school.

She doesn’t trust McMahon to look out for students or protect school funding, she said in an interview shortly after the hearing: “Entire communities are going to suffer.”

Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty, called McMahon competent, smart, and “very decisive.” Justice hopes McMahon’s business background will help her combat inefficiency in the federal bureaucracy. She’s also looking forward to the civil rights office combating diversity efforts and transgender rights.

“The Department of Education has been used to undermine our civil rights as parents, as Americans in so many different ways, and we need to right that ship,” she said.

Mike Petrilli, president of the Fordham Institute, a center-right education think tank, said he expects McMahon to be “an adult in the room” along with Penny Schwinn, a former Tennessee schools chief nominated to be deputy director, and North Dakota State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler, Trump’s nominee to lead elementary and secondary education.

While McMahon has very little education experience, Schwinn and Baesler both have extensive experience and reputations for focusing on students and rebuffing pressure from cultural conservatives.

“We have to believe that inside the Department of Education, between McMahon and the political appointees and DOGE, there will be some big fights,” Petrilli said. “We have to be rooting for McMahon and her colleagues to win.”

This story has been updated to add a statement from McMahon.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Teens with disabilities were getting help with life after high school. Then DOGE started cutting.

2025-02-26T00:43:05+00:00

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When teens and young adults with disabilities in California’s Poway Unified School District heard about a new opportunity to get extra help planning for life after high school, nearly every eligible student signed up.

The program, known as Charting My Path for Future Success, aimed to fill a major gap in education research about what kinds of support give students nearing graduation the best shot at living independently, finding work, or continuing their studies.

Students with disabilities finish college at much lower rates than their non-disabled peers, and often struggle to tap into state employment programs for adults with disabilities, said Stacey McCrath-Smith, a director of special education at Poway Unified, which had 135 students participating in the program. So the extra help, which included learning how to track goals on a tool designed for high schoolers with disabilities, was much needed.

Charting My Path launched earlier this school year in Poway Unified and 12 other school districts. The salaries of 61 school staff nationwide, and the training they received to work with nearly 1,100 high schoolers with disabilities for a year and a half, was paid for by the U.S. Department of Education.

Jessie Damroth’s 17-year-old son Logan, who has autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other medical needs, had attended classes and met with his mentor through the program at Newton Public Schools in Massachusetts for a month. For the first time, he was talking excitedly about career options in science and what he might study at college.

“He was starting to talk about what his path would look like,” Damroth said. “It was exciting to hear him get really excited about these opportunities. … He needed that extra support to really reinforce that he could do this.”

Then the Trump administration pulled the plug.

Charting My Path was among more than 200 Education Department contracts and grants terminated over the last two weeks by the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service. DOGE has slashed spending it deemed to be wasteful, fraudulent, or in service of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility goals that President Donald Trump has sought to ban. But in several instances, the decision to cancel contracts affected more than researchers analyzing data in their offices — it affected students.

Many projects, like Charting My Path, involved training teachers in new methods, testing learning materials in actual classrooms, and helping school systems use data more effectively.

“Students were going to learn really how to set goals and track progress themselves, rather than having it be done for them,” McCrath-Smith said. “That is the skill that they will need post-high school when there’s not a teacher around.”

All of that work was abruptly halted — in some cases with nearly finished results that now cannot be distributed.

Every administration is entitled to set its own priorities, and contracts can be canceled or changed, said Steven Fleischman, an education consultant who for many years ran one of the regional research programs that was terminated. He compared it to a homeowner deciding they no longer want a deck as part of their remodel.

But the current approach reminds him more of construction projects started and then abandoned during the Great Recession, in some cases leaving giant holes that sat for years.

“You can walk around and say, ‘Oh, that was a building we never finished because the funds got cut off,’” he said.

DOGE drives cuts to education research contracts, grants

The Education Department has been a prime target of DOGE, the chaotic cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, now a senior adviser to Trump.

So far, DOGE has halted 89 education projects, many of which were under the purview of the Institute of Education Sciences, the ostensibly independent research arm of the Education Department. The administration said those cuts, which included multi-year contracts, totaled $881 million. In recent years, the federal government has spent just over $800 million on the entire IES budget.

DOGE has also shut down 10 regional labs that conduct research for states and local schools and shuttered four equity assistance centers that help with teacher training. The Trump administration also cut off funding for nearly 100 teacher training grants and 18 grants for centers that often work to improve instruction for struggling students.

The total savings is up for debate. The Trump administration said the terminated Education Department contracts and grants were worth $2 billion. But some were near completion with most of the money already spent.

An NPR analysis of all of DOGE’s reported savings found that it likely was around $2 billion for the entire federal government — though the Education Department is a top contributor.

On Friday, a federal judge issued an injunction that temporarily blocks the Trump administration from canceling additional contracts and grants that might violate the anti-DEIA executive order. It’s not clear whether the injunction would prevent more contracts from being canceled “for convenience.”

Mark Schneider, the recent past IES director, said the sweeping cuts represent an opportunity to overhaul a bloated education research establishment. But even many conservative critics have expressed alarm at how wide-ranging and indiscriminate the cuts have been. Congress mandated many of the terminated programs, which also indirectly support state and privately funded research.

The canceled projects include contracts that support maintenance of the Common Core of Data, a major database used by policymakers, researchers, and journalists, as well as work that supports updates to the What Works Clearinghouse, a huge repository of evidence-based practices available to educators for free.

And after promising not to make any cuts to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card, the department canceled an upcoming test for 17-year-olds that helps researchers understand long-term trends. On Monday, Peggy Carr, the head of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees NAEP, was placed on leave.

The Education Department did not respond to questions about who decided which programs to cut and what criteria were used. Nor did the department respond to a specific question about why Charting My Path was eliminated. DOGE records estimate the administration saved $22 million by terminating the program early, less than half the $54 million in the original contract.

The decision has caused mid-year disruptions and uncertainty.

In Utah, the Canyons School District is trying to reassign the school counselor and three teachers whose salaries were covered by the Charting My Path contract.

The district, which had 88 high schoolers participating in the program, is hoping to keep using the curriculum to boost its usual services, said Kirsten Stewart, a district spokesperson.

Officials in Poway Unified, too, hope schools can use the curriculum and tools to keep up a version of the program. But that will take time and work because the program’s four teachers had to be reassigned to other jobs.

“They dedicated that time and got really important training,” McCrath-Smith said. “We don’t want to see that squandered.”

For Damroth, the loss of parent support meetings through Charting My Path was especially devastating. Logan has a rare genetic mutation that causes him to fall asleep easily during the day, so Damroth wanted help navigating which colleges might be able to offer extra scheduling support.

“I have a million questions about this. Instead of just hearing ‘I don’t know’ I was really looking forward to working with Joe and the program,” she said, referring to Logan’s former mentor. “It’s just heartbreaking. I feel like this wasn’t well thought out. … My child wants to do things in life, but he needs to be given the tools to achieve those goals and those dreams that he has.”

DOGE cuts labs that helped ‘Mississippi Miracle’ in reading

The dramatic improvement in reading proficiency that Carey Wright oversaw as state superintendent in one the nation’s poorest states became known as the “Mississippi Miracle.”

Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, based out of the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University, was a key partner in that work, Wright said.

When Wright wondered if state-funded instructional coaches were really making a difference, REL Southeast dispatched a team to observe, videotape, and analyze the instruction delivered by hundreds of elementary teachers across the state. Researchers reported that teachers’ instructional practices aligned well with the science of reading and that teachers themselves said they felt far more knowledgeable about teaching reading.

“That solidified for me that the money that we were putting into professional learning was working,” Wright said.

The study, she noted, arose from a casual conversation with researchers at REL Southeast: “That’s the kind of give and take that the RELs had with the states.”

Wright, now Maryland state superintendent, said she was looking forward to partnering with REL Mid-Atlantic on a math initiative and on an overhaul of the school accountability system.

But this month, termination letters went out to the universities and research organizations that run the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories, which were established by Congress in 1965 to serve states and school districts. The letters said the contracts were being terminated “for convenience.”

The press release that went to news organizations cited “wasteful and ideologically driven spending” and named a single project in Ohio that involved equity audits as a part of an effort to reduce suspensions. Most of the REL projects on the IES website involve reading, math, career connections, and teacher retention.

Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of WestEd, an education research organization that held the contracts for REL West and REL Northwest, said she never received a complaint or a request to review the contracts before receiving termination letters. Her team had to abruptly cancel meetings to go over results with school districts. In other cases, reports are nearly finished but cannot be distributed because they haven’t gone through the review process.

REL West was also working with the Utah State Board of Education to figure out if the legislature’s investment in programs to keep early career teachers from leaving the classroom was making a difference, among several other projects.

“This is good work and we are trying to think through our options,” she said. “But the cancellation does limit our ability to finish the work.”

Given enough time, Utah should be able to find a staffer to analyze the data collected by REL West, said Sharon Turner, a spokesperson for the Utah State Board of Education. But the findings are much less likely to be shared with other states.

The most recent contracts started in 2022 and were set to run through 2027.

The Trump administration said it planned to enter into new contracts for the RELs to satisfy “statutory requirements” and better serve schools and states, though it’s unclear what that will entail.

“The states drive the research agendas of the RELs,” said Sara Schapiro, the executive director of the Alliance for Learning Innovation, a coalition that advocates for more effective education research. If the federal government dictates what RELs can do, “it runs counter to the whole argument that they want the states to be leading the way on education.”

Some terminated federal education research was nearly complete

Some research efforts were nearly complete when they got shut down, raising questions about how efficient these cuts were.

The American Institutes for Research, for example, was almost done evaluating the impact of the Comprehensive Literacy State Development program, which aims to improve literacy instruction through investments like new curriculum and teacher training.

AIR’s research spanned 114 elementary schools across 11 states and involved more than 23,000 third, fourth, and fifth graders and their nearly 900 reading teachers.

Researchers had collected and analyzed a massive trove of data from the randomized trial and presented their findings to federal education officials just three days before the study was terminated.

“It was a very exciting meeting,” said Mike Garet, a vice president and institute fellow at AIR who oversaw the study. “People were very enthusiastic about the report.”

Another AIR study that was nearing completion looked at the use of multi-tiered systems of support for reading among first and second graders. It’s a strategy that helps schools identify and provide support to struggling readers, with the most intensive help going to kids with the highest needs. It’s widely used by schools, but its effectiveness hasn’t been tested on a larger scale.

The research took place in 106 schools and involved over 1,200 educators and 5,700 children who started first grade in 2021 and 2022. Much of the funding for the study went toward paying for teacher training and coaching to roll out the program over three years. All of the data was collected and nearly done being analyzed when DOGE made its cuts.

Garet doesn’t think he and his team should simply walk away from unfinished work.

“If we can’t report results, that would violate our covenant with the districts, the teachers, the parents, and the students who devoted a lot of time in the hope of generating knowledge about what works,” Garet said. “Now that we have the data and have the results, I think we’re duty-bound to report them.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Linda McMahon’s nomination heads to full Senate after education committee gives OK along party lines

2025-02-20T18:00:05+00:00

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Linda McMahon is one step closer to becoming the secretary of education in charge of dismantling her own department after the Senate education committee moved her nomination forward Thursday.

McMahon’s nomination will be taken up by the full Senate, where she is likely to be confirmed. In a 12-11 party line vote, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee advanced her nomination with a favorable recommendation.

During her confirmation hearing last week, McMahon stood firmly behind President Donald Trump’s calls to gut the U.S. Department of Education, potentially by doling out its responsibilities to other federal agencies. McMahon pledged to work with Congress to dismantle the department, but said she did not intend to slash federal funding for high poverty schools, low income college students, and others who depend on federal education dollars.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the education committee, praised the “strong vision” McMahon laid out for the Education Department, including a commitment to empowering parents and upholding Title IX, the federal civil rights law, based on the Trump administration’s interpretation, which acknowledges the existence of only two sexes.

“If confirmed, Ms. McMahon has the tall task of reforming a Department of Education that has lost its purpose,” Cassidy said. “We need a strong leader at the Department who will get our education system back on track.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire who led some of the most intensive questioning of McMahon during her hearing, said the vote boiled down to “whether we support a nominee and president who believe that dismantling the U.S. Department of Education is in the best interest of kids, despite the fact that there’s no evidence that doing so will improve academic outcomes.”

For much of the country’s history, Hassan said, Black and brown children and children with disabilities often were excluded and denied equal educational opportunities. The Education Department was created to address those “deep divides” and elevate education as an issue, she said.

The Trump administration is expected to issue an executive order detailing its plans for the department.

President Trump campaigned on reducing the role of the federal government in education, but in recent weeks he’s moved to consolidate power in the executive branch and wrest control over how certain issues are taught and how schools run programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Trump has issued a series of executive orders aimed at preventing schools from teaching about topics like systemic racism and white privilege and removing certain protections for transgender students.

The Trump administration’s cost-cutting DOGE initiative has cut dozens of contracts and grants related to education research, teacher training, and more over the last week.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Education Department reorganization won’t hurt funding, McMahon promises in confirmation hearing

2025-02-13T22:36:02+00:00

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Linda McMahon said she stands firmly behind President Donald Trump’s calls to gut the U.S. Department of Education at her confirmation hearing to lead the department.

But she promised to work with Congress to do so — acknowledging some limits on the president’s authority as Trump seeks to remake the government through executive orders. And she tried to reassure teachers and parents that any changes would not jeopardize billions in federal funding that flows to high-poverty schools, special education services, and low-income college students.

“We’d like to do this right,” McMahon said. “It is not the president’s goal to defund the programs, it is only to have it operate more efficiently.”

Trump has called the Education Department a “con job” and said that McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive and billionaire Republican donor, should work to put herself out of a job. McMahon called this rhetoric “fervor” for change.

The Trump administration’s chaotic approach to spending cuts so far raise questions about whether McMahon’s statements — an effort to neutralize the most significant criticism of plans to get rid of the Education Department — will prove true over time.

Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, punctuated by occasional protests, served as a referendum of sorts on the value of the Education Department. Republicans said it had saddled schools with red tape without improving student outcomes. Democrats said the department protects students’ civil rights and funds essential services.

Democrats also pressed McMahon on Trump’s threats to withhold federal funding from schools that violate his executive orders and on the details of a potential reorganization — questions that McMahon largely deflected as ones she could better answer after she takes office.

“It’s almost like we’re being subjected to a very elegant gaslighting here,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire.

McMahon pressed on what DEI orders might mean

Even as Trump has called for the Education Department to be eliminated and schooling to be “returned to the states,” he’s also sought to expand its mission with executive orders threatening the funding of schools that employ diversity, equity, and inclusion practices or teach that racism and discrimination were part of America’s founding. The federal government is barred by law from setting local curriculum, as Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska pointed out during the hearing.

In a tense exchange, Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who’s championed school desegregation and diversity efforts in education, asked McMahon how schools would know if they were running a program that violates Trump’s executive order seeking to root out “radical indoctrination” in K-12 schools. Many schools have no idea what’s allowed, Murphy said, because the order doesn’t clearly define what’s prohibited.

McMahon said in her view, celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month should be permitted, after Murphy noted that U.S. Department of Defense schools would no longer celebrate Black History Month in response to Trump’s order.

But McMahon would not say that running affinity groups for students from certain racial or ethnic backgrounds, such as a Black engineers club or an after-school club for Vietnamese American students, was permitted. She also would not say whether schools might put their federal funding at risk by teaching an African American history class or other ethnic studies program.

“That’s pretty chilling,” Murphy said. “You’re going to have a lot of educators and a lot of principals and administrators scrambling right now.”

Later in the confirmation hearing, McMahon agreed schools should teach “the good, the bad, and the ugly” parts of U.S. history, and that it’s up to states, not the Department of Education, to establish curriculum.

McMahon’s record on DEI has sometimes been at odds with the Trump administration. She backed diversity issues when she served on the Connecticut State Board of Education, the Washington Post reported.

During her hearing, McMahon said DEI programs are “tough,” because while they’re put in place to promote diversity and inclusion, they can have the opposite effect. She pointed to examples of Black and Hispanic students attending separate graduation ceremonies — though those are typically held to celebrate the achievements of students of color, not to isolate them.

Republicans see McMahon as an outsider who can overhaul department

McMahon told the committee that many Americans are experiencing an educational system in decline — she pointed to sobering national test scores, crime on college campuses, and high youth suicide rates — and said it was time for a renewed focus on teaching reading, math, and “true history.”

“In many cases, our wounds are caused by the excessive consolidation of power in our federal education establishment,” she said. “So what’s the remedy? Fund education freedom, not government-run systems. Listen to parents, not politicians. Build up careers, not college debt. Empower states, not special interests. Invest in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats.”

Republican Senators reiterated these themes, arguing that bureaucrats in Washington had had their chance and that it was time for a new approach.

They asked McMahon about Trump administration priorities such as expanding school choice, including private school vouchers, and interpreting Title IX to bar transgender students from restrooms and sports teams aligned with their gender identities.

McMahon said she was “happy” to see the Biden administration’s rules on Title IX vacated, and she supported withholding federal funds from colleges that did not comply with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law.

Teachers unions and other critics of McMahon have said she lacks the proper experience to lead the Education Department, though McMahon and others have pointed to her time serving on the Connecticut State Board of Education, as a trustee of Sacred Heart University, and her role as chair of the America First Policy Institute, where she advocated for private school choice, apprenticeships, and career education.

A protester yells in defense of public schools during Linda McMahon's confirmation hearing. Protesters interrupted the hearing several times.

McMahon also ran the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration. Her understanding of the federal bureaucracy is an asset, supporters say.

Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, said McMahon’s background made her uniquely suited to tackle the pressing challenges facing the American education system today.

“For the poorest kids in our country, disillusioned about the American dream, the answers they are looking for rarely come from Washington,” Scott said. “With all of our good intentions, the Department of Education has simply failed the poorest kids in the United States of America, the greatest nation on the planet. To turn that around, we need someone who’s already succeeded in business and in government.”

Funding, protections for students with disabilities at stake

McMahon said multiple times that parents of children with disabilities should not worry about federal funding being cut for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, though she said it was possible that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would administer the money instead of the Education Department.

But it appeared that McMahon had limited knowledge of the rights outlined in IDEA, the landmark civil rights law that protects students with disabilities. And she said it was possible that civil rights enforcement — a large portion of which is related to complaints about children with disabilities not getting the services to which they’re entitled — would move to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dismantling the education department by moving key functions to other departments is a tenet of Project 2025, the playbook the conservative Heritage Foundation developed for a second Trump administration. Most of these functions are mandated in federal law, and moving them would require congressional approval.

McMahon struggled to articulate the goals of IDEA beyond saying students would be taken care of and get the assistance and technology they need.

“There is a reason that the Department of Education and IDEA exist, and it is because educating kids with disabilities can be really hard and it takes the national commitment to get it done,” Hassan, the New Hampshire senator, said. “That’s why so many people are so concerned about this proposal to eliminate the department. Because they think kids will once again be shoved aside, and especially kids with disabilities.”

McMahon also could not name any requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal law that replaced No Child Left Behind. ESSA requires states to identify low-performing schools and intervene to improve student learning, but it gives states more flexibility in how they do so than the previous law.

McMahon seemed open to reversing some of the cuts enacted by the U.S. DOGE Service, the cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk.

She said, if confirmed, she would look into whether staff who’d been placed on administrative leave — including some who investigate civil rights complaints — should return. She also said she’d assess the programs that were cut when DOGE terminated 89 contracts at the Institute of Education Sciences and 29 training grants.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said her office had heard from a former teacher who developed an intensive tutoring strategy that was used in a dozen schools in the state. The teacher had a pending grant application to evaluate the program and its effect on student outcomes, and the teacher worried it would be in jeopardy. Collins asked if the department should keep collecting that kind of data so it could help states determine what’s working for kids.

“I’m not sure yet what the impact of all of those programs are,” McMahon said. “There are many worthwhile programs that we should keep, but I’m not yet apprised of them.”

The Senate education committee is scheduled to vote on McMahon’s confirmation on Feb. 20.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Linda McMahon invested in dozens of bonds funding public school projects across the US

2025-02-12T19:34:48+00:00

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Linda McMahon, the nominee for U.S. education secretary, holds dozens of municipal bonds that are funding construction and other projects at school districts and public colleges and universities across the country, her ethics disclosure forms show.

Based on her holdings, it’s likely McMahon earns at least $900,000 a year in interest payments from investing in those public education-related bonds in two dozen states, a Chalkbeat analysis found. That’s based on the minimum value of the bonds and assumes a conservative 2.5% yield on the investments.

McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive, ran the Small Business Administration during President Donald Trump’s first term, but has little education experience.

Her confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday before the Senate education committee. It’s likely to become a referendum of sorts on Trump’s plans to eliminate or significantly reduce the Department of Education. Trump, who is pushing to expand private school choice, has said he wants McMahon to put herself out of a job.

A representative for McMahon could not be reached for comment. But McMahon has said she would divest from 78 bonds that fund public education projects, the ethics forms show, including 64 bonds issued to K-12 school districts or agencies.

McMahon has a sizable investment portfolio, said Justin Marlowe, a University of Chicago research professor who directs the Center for Municipal Finance who reviewed the assets on her disclosure forms. She probably hired someone else to manage it.

It’s also likely McMahon did not pick these specific school districts to invest in, and she may not have known she held these particular bonds before filing her disclosure, said Ruth Winecoff, an assistant professor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick who studies public finance. It’s possible her financial adviser invested in the bonds through a mutual or money market fund.

McMahon invested in municipal bonds issued to some of the largest school districts in the country, including Houston and Palm Beach County, as well as smaller districts that serve no more than 1,500 students. Often the bonds are to repair school buildings, build new ones, or pay off old bond debt.

In Denver Public Schools, for example, the bonds McMahon invested in were to help the district replace leaking roofs, install air conditioning in schools that didn’t have it, and buy new furniture. The bonds also helped establish an early childhood center, upgrade science labs, improve security at school entryways, and buy more computers so kids could take them home to do their assignments.

In many states, schools have little access to public funding to repair aging school buildings or build new facilities. So schools often borrow money to take care of those needs.

McMahon currently serves as chair of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank that promotes school choice, among other issues. The disclosure forms indicate she plans to resign from that position, as well as from the board of Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic college, if confirmed by the Senate.

It’s common for wealthy investors like McMahon, who is a billionaire, to hold these kinds of municipal bonds, finance experts say.

For one, investors do not have to pay federal income tax on the interest they earn. And in some cases, they don’t have to pay state or local income tax on the interest they earn, either.

“It’s very popular with high net-worth individuals who are looking to shield income from taxation,” Marlowe said. “There’s more municipal bonds held by people in the top tax brackets than there are in the lower tax brackets. She’s clearly in that category.”

Municipal bonds are also considered a safe investment — it’s unlikely local governments would fail to pay investors back — and they can help balance out the risks in an overall portfolio, Winecoff said.

You can look up whether McMahon invested in a bond for your local school district or college below:

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Crucial research halted as DOGE abruptly terminates Education Department contracts

2025-02-12T00:38:42+00:00

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The Trump administration has terminated dozens of contracts worth nearly $900 million at the U.S. Department of Education, halting crucial education research and data-gathering efforts.

The canceled contracts are part of an ongoing effort led by the U.S. DOGE Service, a cost-cutting initiative headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

The contract terminations come as the Trump administration looks to significantly scale back the size and scope of the Department of Education, with an executive order to that effect reportedly coming soon.

On Monday night, DOGE announced on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, that it had terminated 89 Education Department contracts totaling $881 million.

Many of those were for education research and program evaluation work done by the Institute of Education Sciences, or IES, the research arm of the Department of Education. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat who sits on the Senate education committee, said in a statement the cuts amounted to a “gutting” of IES.

When asked for comment, Alberto Bentacourt, a spokesperson for the Department of Education told Chalkbeat: “We kindly point you to the X post from DOGE.”

Madi Biedermann, another Education Department spokesperson, told ProPublica that 90 contracts had been identified as “waste, fraud, and abuse” and that canceling them was “in line with the department’s goal of making sure it is focused on meaningful learning.” Biedermann would not provide specifics about which contracts were cut short.

Several contractors for the Education Department told Chalkbeat they got notices on Monday saying that their contracts had been terminated and that work must stop immediately.

Dana Tofig, a spokesperson for the American Institutes for Research, said the nonprofit research organization had received termination notices for several IES contracts related to education statistics and evaluation work. The terminations were “for convenience,” he said, a clause that allows the federal government to end contracts without cause regardless of the contractor’s performance.

“If the purpose of such cuts is to make sure taxpayer dollars are not wasted and used well, the evaluation and data work that has been terminated is exactly the work that determines which programs are effective uses of federal dollars, and which are not,” Tofig wrote, noting several contracts were nearing their completion.

John Hutchins, a spokesperson for MDRC, which also conducts education research, said the nonprofit had two IES contracts canceled as of Tuesday.

The first was to conduct the ReSolve Math Study, a sweeping effort to help kids who are struggling in math following the pandemic. The second was to assist external evaluators who conduct research for the What Works Clearinghouse, a federal repository of best practices and education research that schools and lawmakers often rely on.

Some research projects had the plug pulled after they’d already collected years of data. It’s unclear if any of that information will be salvaged or if it will be destroyed. One person who worked on a contract that was canceled mid-project — who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to prevent retaliation by the Trump administration — likened it to having their work flushed down the toilet.

It’s unclear exactly how many of the Education Department’s hundreds of active contracts were terminated. In a statement, Felice Levine, who directs the American Educational Research Association, said 169 IES contracts had been terminated, including some for the National Center for Education Statistics, a part of IES that publishes key reports, some of which are mandated by Congress.

EdTrust, a prominent civil rights organization that relies on disaggregated education data by race, income, and other demographics to help identify disparities and inequities in schools, condemned the contract cuts.

“The sudden halting of these contracts jeopardizes our collective responsibility to identify and address the inequities that affect a variety of student populations, including students from low-income families, students of color, English language learners, students with disabilities, student parents, and students from rural communities,” the organization said in a statement.

In a conversation that aired Tuesday on LinkedIn, Mark Schneider, the director of IES for six years under President Joe Biden and during Trump’s first term, said he viewed what was happening not as a “tragedy” or a “catastrophe,” but as an opportunity to significantly overhaul research at the Education Department.

He saw room, for example, for IES to build a better statewide longitudinal data system that states could customize, instead of reinventing the wheel on their own.

He admitted the process had been chaotic, but said what happens next is more important.

“These guys came in with a sledgehammer and they just broke shit,” Schneider said of the DOGE staff. “They probably swung the sledgehammer too fast and too hard because they broke things like [the Common Core of Data] that actually are important. … What you really need is a crew that comes in there and has more knowledge than the DOGE people that are committed to rebuilding the education R&D infrastructure.”

Some programs were spared. ProPublica reported that the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a key test often called the nation’s report card, would not be affected by the cuts. The Trump administration pointed to disappointing NAEP scores, released earlier this month, as a rationale to invest more in private school vouchers and other school choice programs.

The College Scorecard, which helps high schoolers compare college offerings and cost, is also unaffected.

The cuts also will not affect contractors working in IES’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, which helps develop and evaluate new ed tech products, Education Week reported, or the Regional Education Laboratory Program, which has 10 outposts that help school districts, state education departments, and others gather data and make decisions about education policies and programs.

On Monday, DOGE announced the Education Department had also canceled 29 training grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. It singled out a grant that trained teachers to “help students understand / interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis.”

Trump has issued executive orders seeking to prevent federal agencies from carrying out work related to DEI initiatives, and to stop K-12 schools from teaching students about concepts like white privilege and unconscious bias.

Already, the Education Department has scrubbed hundreds of documents from its website and put at least 50 staffers on leave.

This story has been updated to add more information about canceled contracts and comments from former IES Director Mark Schneider.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Proof of citizenship to enroll in school? GOP lawmakers eye barriers for undocumented students.

2025-02-08T00:30:39+00:00

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Republican lawmakers in at least five states are seeking to block undocumented children from attending public school for free or to inquire about students’ immigration status in ways that courts have held violate children’s educational rights.

The rationale often centers around cost: Proponents say states and local school districts are spending too much to educate undocumented immigrants and that their parents should bear the financial responsibility for their education. Having data about how many undocumented children attend public school, and where, is necessary to tally up costs and take stock of needs, they add.

If any of these proposals become law, they would likely violate the 1982 landmark Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which held that children are entitled to a free public education regardless of their immigration status.

To some lawmakers, that’s the point. They’ve said they want to enact a policy that would likely draw a legal challenge so it could potentially make its way up to the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority may be open to overturning the Plyler ruling.

When Plyler was decided, the justices in the majority said that educating children without legal immigration status wasn’t a significant burden for the state. But circumstances have changed over the last 40 years, said Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for dramatic reductions in immigration.

“You could probably make a case in just about every school district in the country these days that it is a significant burden, and a particularly onerous one in certain parts of the country,” Mehlman said. “It’s a lot of money, and it comes at the expense not just of taxpayers but of the quality of education for other kids in those school systems.”

Schools have had to hire additional bilingual staff and social workers to support newcomer students, and some school boards have expressed similar financial concerns as the sponsors of these bills.

But schools also report that immigrant students have brought welcome diversity and bolstered enrollment and funding.

None of the many challenges to Plyler have gotten far before. But some say in this legal and political climate — where President Donald Trump is seeking to end birthright citizenship and increase deportations of immigrants without legal status in the U.S. — that one or more of these proposals could become law, forcing schools to decide whether to comply or resist.

“These legislatures are trying to provide the case” that reaches the Supreme Court, said Brett Geier, a professor of educational leadership at Western Michigan University, who wrote a book about the Supreme Court’s effects on public schools since 2005. “You also have a Supreme Court that is probably ready to look at that.”

“We know that the court is in no way fearful of overturning precedent,” Geier added.

Bills would block undocumented students, collect immigration info

The Republican-backed state bills seeking to affect the education of undocumented children come as many schools are grappling with how to support their students and families in a moment of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment.

On his first day in office, Trump cleared the way for immigrant agents to make arrests at schools, child care centers, playgrounds, and other places where kids gather. In the past, those were treated as “sensitive” locations that were highly restricted when it came to immigration enforcement.

Now lawmakers in at least four states are seeking to give schools the power to turn undocumented students away, or to charge their families tuition for public school — a move that led to the Plyler ruling over 40 years ago.

In Texas, where the Plyler challenge originated, a Republican lawmaker filed a bill one week after Trump was reelected that would allow public schools to charge undocumented children tuition to attend, unless the federal government stepped in to cover the costs. The idea mirrors one put forward by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the Trump administration.

In Indiana, two Republican lawmakers introduced legislation last month that would allow school districts to prevent immigrant children from enrolling if school officials determined by “a preponderance of the evidence” that the child was not legally present in the U.S. That proposal comes with backup: The state attorney general would defend a school district if it were sued due to the law.

In New Jersey, where Trump made surprising inroads, a Republican lawmaker introduced legislation that would allow school districts to charge children tuition if a student couldn’t prove their citizenship or legal immigration status — though that has virtually no chance of passing in a state where Democrats control both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s seat.

And in Tennessee, where Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, lawmakers are going after the issue on multiple fronts. One pair of Republican-sponsored bills would require students to prove they are U.S. citizens by producing a birth certificate or other approved document. Without that, families could only enroll their child if they paid the district what it would usually spend per student.

Another set of bills introduced this week by the Tennessee House majority leader and the chair of the powerful Senate finance committee would allow school districts and charter schools to refuse to enroll any child who is “unlawfully present” in the U.S. That would likely sweep up a larger category of children, such as those with temporary protected status that expired or whose families overstayed their visas.

GOP Gov. Bill Lee hasn’t weighed in directly on the proposal. But the universal private school voucher legislation he championed that recently passed the legislature carries a similar provision that says students who cannot establish their “lawful presence” in the U.S. are not eligible for the voucher.

Judith Clerjeune, the advocacy director for the Tennessee Immigration & Refugee Rights Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrant rights across the state, worries the bills could have wider support among Republicans in the statehouse.

“In months or years before, the idea of attacking innocent children and taking away their public education would have been unheard of,” Clerjeune said. “Unfortunately, the narrative has become so extreme that this is legislation that we’re seeing coming from Republican leadership.”

In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion for Plyler, Justice William Brennan wrote that “legislation directing the onus of a parent’s misconduct against his children does not comport with fundamental conceptions of justice.”

But in his dissent, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote that “there can, of course, be no presumption that a state has a constitutional duty to include illegal aliens among the recipients of its governmental benefits.” Yet he also wrote that it would be “senseless” to “deprive any children — including illegal aliens — of an elementary education.”

Mehlman, of FAIR, agrees that it’s not good policy to have children who aren’t in school. But he says parents who broke immigration law when they came to the U.S. are responsible for the consequences of their decisions, including any effects on their children.

“You would expect, or hope, that parents who put their kids in this situation might do the right thing and decide: If my kids can’t be educated here, then we’re going to leave,” he said.

In 2024, Colorado's Westminster Public Schools worked to make newly arrived migrant students feel welcome with a summer program designed to support them.

To Clerjeune, it’s “short-sighted” to argue that immigrant children are a burden on public schools. Often, she noted, their parents contribute to public education funds through property, sales, and income taxes.

“They’re trying to distract people and redirect attention to immigrant students by blaming them for the challenges that public schools are facing,” Clerjeune said. “We’re not thinking of the longer-term impacts on the economy, on our society at large.”

Proposals would make parents prove children’s citizenship

Republican lawmakers in at least four states are also seeking to collect information about children’s immigration status or to verify children’s citizenship status during the enrollment process. When Alabama passed a similar law in 2011, it faced numerous legal challenges and the provision was ultimately blocked.

In Indiana, a bill written by four Republican lawmakers would task school districts and charter schools with reporting a litany of statistics to the state’s education department each year. That includes the number of “unlawfully present students” enrolled in their schools, whether those children are English learners, how many staff are employed to provide bilingual instruction, and the attendance and truancy rates for “unlawfully present” students.

It would also require schools to report the number of enrolled students who are not U.S. citizens and the immigration status of every non-citizen student.

Texas has a similar proposal, though it goes even further: It would require school districts to count children they know or “reasonably believe” are not U.S. citizens.

In Oklahoma, a Republican lawmaker is advancing a proposal first crafted by state Superintendent Ryan Walters that would require parents to prove their child is a U.S. citizen or has “legal immigration status” when they enroll them in school. (Walters has risen to national prominence for his confrontational stance on several culture war issues.)

Parents would have to produce a document such as a birth certificate, a U.S. passport, a Social Security card, or a teen’s Oklahoma drivers license.

The bill says children wouldn’t be prevented from enrolling if they are undocumented, and Walters and other proponents say this information is necessary to figure out what students need and where staff and resources should be directed.

Walters has also said this policy could end “sanctuary schools” in Oklahoma.

But courts have held that checking immigration status like this infringes on children’s educational rights because it can instill fear and lead parents to keep their kids out of school.

“I can tell you that their citizenship makes no difference to their needs,” said Angela Baumann, who teaches English learners in Oklahoma’s Lawton Public Schools, in testimony to the Oklahoma state school board, which unanimously backed the proposal. “They don’t need to feel ostracized by a community because they may not be from here.”

Some school districts would likely resist complying. Last year, NBC News reported that a dozen Oklahoma school districts said they would not check students’ immigration status if they were asked to by the state education department.

“I will have to go with the U.S. Supreme Court over a state elected official,” Rob Miller, the superintendent of Bixby Public Schools, told NBC News at the time. “Part of my job as superintendent, and for other superintendents around our state, is to follow the laws of the land.”

Cari Elledge, the president of the Oklahoma Education Association, which represents teachers, school administrators, and other school staff, said the union will urge its some 30,000 members to keep calling state lawmakers to express their concerns about the bill.

Already, some schools have seen immigrant families withdrawing their children, Elledge said, which could reduce funding for those school districts in the long run.

“These are the reasons why we tell our legislators: You’re trying to do something that’s just going to cost us more money in the end, because ultimately it’s not constitutional,” she said. “We hope that people will start paying attention.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump executive orders on DEI and schools big on drama, but impact will take time to emerge

2025-02-03T23:57:09+00:00

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With a series of sweeping executive actions, President Donald Trump is seeking to remake K-12 education in a conservative image. In the process, he’s pushing legal and political boundaries on how far the federal government can reach into American classrooms.

But the executive orders on their own have little power to radically and rapidly change an American school system in which states, school districts, and even individual schools have traditionally called the shots on everything from what kids learn to which restroom transgender students use.

Some conservatives are cheering the new approach — one they believe better reflects the views of most Americans. Many left-leaning education advocates and those who champion traditional public schools say the executive orders have little legal power.

It will likely take months for the full impact of the executive orders to be clear.

In the first two weeks of his second term, Trump said the federal government would only recognize two sexes, male and female, which could have big implications for transgender students’ rights. He wants to root out “radical indoctrination” in American classrooms and send more federal funding to private school vouchers.

He also cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools, and sought to freeze certain federal funds for schools and early childhood programs. The administration continues to selectively block payments to programs it deems not aligned with its values or policy priorities in the face of numerous legal challenges.

Taken together, these actions show the Trump administration is ready to lean on various levers of power — from the bully pulpit to federal investigations to threats of withholding funding — to convince or coerce schools to comply with its worldview, whether or not the federal government has the legal authority to do so. Disappointing national test scores and state-level wins for Republicans could also be fueling Trump’s ambitions to stake a greater political claim on K-12 education.

“The president is responding to what he feels like the voters who put him in office feel strongly about,” said Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow in education policy at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank whose policy proposals are often embraced by Trump. “It sort of changed the mission statement on these issues of gender, race, down to school choice, and beyond. That’s an important starting point.”

Trump likes Indiana schools. Are they winning the war on ‘woke’ he wants to fight?

Some effects were swift. The U.S. Department of Education removed hundreds of documents from its website related to diversity and equity initiatives and suspended at least 50 staffers. Civil rights staffers are now enforcing 2020 Title IX rules, which don’t offer explicit protections for trans students as did now-defunct rules issued under President Joe Biden. And some schools have seen attendance dip among immigrant students whose families worry they could be detained by immigration agents during school dropoff.

Some of the high-profile orders have had little or no tangible effect on schools so far. They direct federal agencies, not states or districts, to develop plans over the next several months. At the same time, some observers worry schools will preemptively make changes to their teaching or programs — even if they aren’t legally required to.

The executive orders “have a lot of power to create chaos and fear and confusion, and that’s real, immediately,” said Ary Amerikaner, a former Education Department official and the executive director of Brown’s Promise, which conducts research and advocacy on school desegregation and school funding. Yet she also said Trump’s actions were “mostly bluster” that lacked “a lot of power to actually affect what’s happening on the ground, because they can’t change existing law.”

The orders leave a lot of room for interpretation, several education policy experts said. Forthcoming guidance and federal grant notices could help fill in blanks.

“I want details,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, who oversees advocacy and governance for The School Superintendents Association. “How do these proposals continue to roll out?”

The executive actions also highlight an ongoing tension in the Trump administration’s approach to K-12 education.

Trump and his allies have said they want to shrink the size and role of the federal Education Department, if not abolish it entirely. Trump is reportedly preparing an executive order to diminish the department’s size. But his orders so far indicate a certain desire to wrest power from local schools by dictating what they can and cannot teach about topics such as systemic racism, white privilege, and gender identity. Numerous laws prohibit federal officials from deciding what program of instruction or curriculum a school uses, which some state officials have been keen to point out.

The incoming education secretary has been tasked with issuing several reports on how various executive orders could be carried out. Yet attempts by Trump officials to directly control daily school decisions could quickly trigger lengthy court battles.

“They’re not the nation’s school board,” Ellerson Ng said.

Trump order has potential effects on classroom instruction

Some worry Trump’s executive order seeking to withhold federal funds from schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology” has the potential to alter classroom instruction and cut support for trans students.

The order defines “discriminatory equity ideology” as any classroom instruction that treats people “as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability.” It has the same acronym — DEI — as the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” efforts Trump is seeking to eliminate throughout the federal government.

“Gender ideology,” meanwhile, includes any instance in which a school recognizes that a child can be a gender other than the male or female sex they were assigned at birth. It targets classroom instruction, as well as counseling for students and school policies, such as those asking teachers to use the name and pronouns that correspond with a child’s gender identity.

The order seeks to stop schools from teaching that people can be inherently racist, sexist, privileged, or oppressed based on their race, sex, or other characteristics — taking direct aim at concepts such as white privilege and unconscious bias. It also seeks to bar teaching that the U.S. is fundamentally racist, a concept that about 1 in 3 students says comes up often at their school, a recent nationally representative survey of high schoolers found.

Students displaced by the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles read in their new classroom at Nora Sterry Elementary School. Disaster recovery assistance is just one way federal funds support K-12 schools. The Trump administration has pledged to use federal money as a lever to get compliance with its policy priorities.

The language mirrors the text of several state laws that target critical race theory, an academic concept that says racism is embedded in the U.S. legal system and government policies.

Eighteen states already have laws or official policies that prohibit similar lessons. But there is reason to believe some teachers will self-censor or face new pressures from their district or school leaders. It’s happened before.

A 2022 national survey, for example, found that 1 in 5 teachers in states without official limits on teaching about racism and sexism were asked to curtail discussion of hot-button social and political topics.

“This administration is clearly thriving in a culture of creating fear,” said Amerikaner, of Brown’s Promise. “The thing that I think is most important for educators and administrators on the ground is to not take the bait.”

Similarly, advocates for LGBTQ students are advising schools they don’t need to change their policies because of the president’s order.

“School districts need to be aware that LGBTQ students’ rights have not changed,” said Brian Dittmeier, the director of public policy at GLSEN, an organization that works to create safe school environments for LGBTQ youth.

Are Trump’s executive actions about DEI and immigration changing your school? Take our survey.

Trans kids and other LGBTQ students still have various protections under the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws. And state laws that protect LGBTQ students remain in effect in those states.

Executive orders don’t reverse case law, Dittmeier said. Regardless of shifting Title IX regulations, court cases such as Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board held that transgender students have a right to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity. And the U.S. Supreme Court found in Bostock v. Clayton County that discrimination against gay or transgender people is a form of sex discrimination, although pending cases have the potential to change the legal landscape.

In a Jan. 31 letter to education officials, a Trump official said the reinstated 2020 Title IX rules do not protect students from discrimination based on sex stereotypes.

Still, schools that fail to protect LGBTQ students’ rights in an effort to comply with Trump’s executive order could be subject to lawsuits and civil rights complaints, including in the 26 states that have their own civil rights processes, Dittmeier said.

Landscape for education civil rights complaints could change

To Butcher, of the Heritage Foundation, the executive order about “discriminatory equity ideology” is asking schools to follow existing anti-discrimination laws.

He envisions, for example, that there could be a federal civil rights investigation if a school grouped students into affinity groups by race or limited discipline for Black and Hispanic students as a way to meet internal “ratios” and avoid suspending too many students of color. That could have prompted a civil rights probe under now-rescinded Obama administration guidance.

How exactly the Trump administration will monitor whether schools are violating the executive order remains to be seen.

Conservative parent groups file frequent federal civil rights complaints objecting to teacher diversity programs and student affinity groups. Under Trump, these complaints could get a friendlier reception.

Even under the Biden administration, the Los Angeles school system was forced to overhaul a program to promote Black student achievement in response to such a complaint.

The Trump Education Department has already taken a step on a related issue: It has dismissed 11 civil rights complaints related to alleged book bans, which the agency labeled a “hoax.”

Some states with similar prohibitions set up a reporting process so parents, school staff, and others can flag materials or lessons that may not comply with state law.

But creating a national reporting tool would be logistically challenging and time-consuming, said Butcher, who wants to see the Department of Justice take the lead on investigating with help from state education officials and state attorneys general.

“Not every report or accusation is accurate,” Butcher said. “There is a lot of follow up that has to be done. That, I think, is beyond the scope of what Washington should be doing right now, especially at the Department of Education, if the goal is to be winding it down.”

School districts may also decide to be extra cautious with their budgets to avoid the risk of losing federal funds if they somehow violate a presidential order.

Sarah Abernathy, the executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, which tracks federal investments in education on behalf of several groups, said she’ll be listening for school district discussions about laying off staff or ending programs to comply with a federal order — or get ahead of one.

She also worries schools will be afraid to talk about it publicly for fear of drawing any attention to themselves. On a recent call with members of her organization, Abernathy asked for examples of how the presidential orders could affect K-12 schools financially and all she heard was “crickets.”

“I don’t think anyone in the education world wants the administration using them as an example of something that is wrong,” she said.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Trump wants to withhold money from schools teaching ‘discriminatory equity ideology,’ gender identity

2025-01-29T23:39:54+00:00

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President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday seeking to withhold federal funding from K-12 schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology.”

The order defines discriminatory equity ideology as anything “that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups” rather than as individuals. That includes the idea that people can be inherently privileged or oppressed because of their race or gender, which likely targets concepts such as white privilege.

The language is similar to the text of several state laws that have sought to limit teaching about systemic racism and sexism and targeted “critical race theory” — though the order does not use that term.

“Gender ideology,” as defined in an earlier executive order, includes any acknowledgement of gender identities besides the male or female sex that a person is assigned at birth.

The news was first reported early Wednesday by the Daily Caller.

Federal funding accounts for about 8% to 10% of funding for K-12 schools but can represent a much larger portion in high-poverty schools and districts.

It’s unclear what exactly would rise to the level of teaching these concepts. But the executive order’s targeting of education issues related to race and gender illustrates the administration’s keen interest in pushing schools away from teaching certain subjects in certain ways — a desire Trump began expressing strongly towards the end of his first term.

Trump executive order seeks to steer federal funds to private school vouchers

Trump and other critics of critical race theory often have used the term as a catchall for everything from efforts to diversify the teacher workforce to curriculum revisions that better incorporate the perspective of Black Americans in lessons about slavery and the founding of the country. Some conservatives see course materials that refer to systemic racism or white privilege as evidence of critical race theory in K-12 schools — a viewpoint that would likely carry over to “discriminatory equity ideology.”

Trump and his supporters have used the phrase “gender ideology” to describe teaching about gender identity and the existence of transgender people. In an earlier executive order, Trump sought to define sex as a binary — male or female — that cannot be changed. On Tuesday, Trump issued another order seeking to curtail gender-affirming care for trans children and teens.

It’s also unclear whether the federal government has the authority to do this. Federal law prohibits federal officials from telling schools what they can and cannot teach. The American education system is set up such that decisions about what kids should learn are made at the local level.

On top of that, several states require schools to teach ethnic studies and to include a diverse range of perspectives in their lessons. Seven states require schools to include lessons about LGBTQ history or issues, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks such laws. Trump has previously said he wants to shift authority over education to the states, in tandem with his stated desire to close the U.S. Department of Education.

Similar efforts to restrict lessons about sexism, racism, and bias at the state level have faced legal challenges at the state level for being too vague. A settlement in Florida over the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law found that students and teachers couldn’t be prohibited from discussing LGBTQ issues, so long as it wasn’t part of formal instruction.

The order could stoke fear and confusion among educators and school officials, many of whom already operate under a state law or district policy that limits what they can teach about certain hot-button topics. Eighteen states have laws or official policies limiting lessons on racism and sexism, according to a tracker maintained by Education Week. Some states also restrict lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity, or require parents to give permission for their children to learn about these topics.

How exactly the federal government would monitor what’s being taught in classrooms across the nation’s some 13,000 school districts is also an open question. Some states with laws limiting instruction about racism, sexism, and gender identity have set up websites or processes where parents can review curriculum and report lessons or teachers that they think are out of compliance.

On Tuesday, the Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into a Denver high school that converted a girls’ restroom to an all-gender restroom based solely off a local news report, rather than a formal complaint. That probe could be a preview of how the federal government might deal with schools that the Trump White House believes are ignoring or somehow flouting the executive order, without a time-consuming complaint or investigative process.

The order directs the incoming secretary of education to provide the president with a plan within 90 days on how to end lessons on these topics.

Trump nominated Linda McMahon, the former CEO of the WWE professional wrestling franchise, to head the U.S. Department of Education, though her confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

The order also reinstates the 1776 Commission, which was set up during the first Trump administration to promote “patriotic education” and to challenge lessons that present “America’s story solely as one of oppression and victimhood rather than one of imperfection but also unprecedented achievement toward freedom, happiness, and fairness for all.”

Experts said the report produced by the commission, composed of conservative thinkers and academics, whitewashed and distorted American history. Former President Joe Biden disbanded the commission shortly after he took office.

This story has been updated to reflect the contents of the executive order signed by Trump.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

NAEP scores show disheartening trends for the lowest-performing students

2025-01-29T05:01:00+00:00

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Most American students are still performing below their pre-pandemic counterparts in reading and math, while the yawning gap between high-achieving and low-performing students got even wider, data from “the nation’s report card” shows.

Results released Wednesday from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, paint a sobering picture of academic haves and have-nots. Scores are increasing for many students who already do well, while struggling students stagnated or fell even further behind their peers. That’s making a trend that began about a decade ago even more pronounced.

In some cases that divide was historic: Lower-performing fourth and eighth graders posted the worst reading scores in over 30 years. In eighth grade math, the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students was the widest in the test’s history.

“The news is not good,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told reporters on Tuesday. “Student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, reading scores continue to decline, and our lowest performing students are reading at historically low levels.”

Scores saw a dramatic decline in 2022 after students endured two disrupted pandemic school years marked by closures, quarantines, and remote learning. But in 2024, reading scores declined even more for both fourth and eighth graders.

“This is a major concern — a concern that can’t be blamed solely on the pandemic,” Carr said. “Our nation is facing complex challenges in reading.”

Fourth grade math was the lone bright spot, with average student scores ticking up two points on the 500-point scale. But much of that increase was driven by improvement among top performers.

Eighth grade math scores held steady, with gains among higher-performing students canceling out declines among lower-performers.

All of the children who took the NAEP last year had at least some of their education affected by the pandemic. The fourth graders were in kindergarten when schools closed in March 2020, while eighth graders were in fourth grade.

The results are sure to fuel ongoing debate about whether schools are doing enough to help struggling students, especially those who are the farthest behind, the role that school closures played in exacerbating learning gaps, and whether schools effectively spent the nearly $190 billion they received in federal COVID relief dollars.

The new NAEP scores have landed as conservatives push to expand private school choice, public schools grapple with budget cuts, culture war skirmishes persist, and chronic absenteeism remains at historically high levels. Students who performed the worst on the NAEP test were more likely to be frequently absent from school, Carr noted.

“We have a larger-than-in-recent-memory share of American students who are failing to demonstrate even partial mastery of the types of skills educators have defined as important,” said Martin West, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the vice chair of the NAEP Governing Board, which decides the test’s content and approves questions. “That doesn’t bode well for their futures or for our collective futures.”

The new data come from tests taken in early 2024 by nearly half a million students across thousands of U.S. schools.

Worrying decline in NAEP reading scores continues

On average, fourth and eighth grade students scored two points lower in reading than their counterparts in 2022 and five points lower than students in 2019. Only in Louisiana, where the state superintendent has put a major focus on reading, did fourth grade reading scores rise above 2019 levels.

The share of fourth graders who scored at the very bottom of the NAEP scale was at its highest point in 20 years. The share of eighth graders scoring at the lowest level was the highest ever. And in both grades, students who did not reach the NAEP Basic level — relatively low performers at the 25th percentile and under — had lower scores than in 1992, when the first NAEP test was given.

When a fourth grader can’t meet the NAEP Basic level, it doesn’t mean they cannot read. But it likely means they would struggle with easier skills, such as sequencing events in a story or stating an opinion using supporting evidence from a text. Eighth graders who fall below NAEP Basic would have trouble identifying basic literary elements, such as character motivation and the main idea.

NAEP results show how many students score below, at, or above two thresholds: NAEP Basic and NAEP Proficient. Proficient is considered a high bar, above what most states set as grade level expectations. Reaching the NAEP Basic threshold indicates students have achieved partial mastery of fundamental skills and knowledge for that grade level.

The rise in students who don’t meet that mark is of particular concern.

The dips in reading come as dozens of states overhaul their reading instruction with materials that better align with the science of reading. And while federal education officials are usually reticent to explain what caused a particular increase or decrease in scores, Carr cautioned that the near-universal dips in reading should not be taken as evidence that reading reforms have not worked.

She pointed to the example of Louisiana, where fourth graders are scoring better in reading than they did in 2019, bucking the national trend. That state has focused heavily on the science of reading “but they didn’t start yesterday,” Carr said.

“They were able to pull this off, and not only improve to pre-pandemic levels, but exceed them, and bring their lower-performers along,” she said. “I would not say that hope is lost.”

Still, Lesley Muldoon, the executive director of the NAEP Governing Board, said the growing share of children who cannot read at the NAEP Basic level, which generally corresponds with state proficiency standards, is concerning.

If a fourth grader can’t meet that in reading, “we’re saying that they’re unlikely to determine the meaning of a familiar word using context from the text,” Muldoon said. “That is a crucial skill that students really need for entering middle school.”

NAEP math scores show recovery — but also stagnation

In fourth grade math, average scores increased two points from 2022 but were still three points lower than pre-pandemic levels. Only in Alabama did fourth graders have higher scores than their 2019 counterparts. The average score was lifted by high-performing students who saw greater gains, while lower-performing students did about the same as in 2022.

Fifteen states and 14 urban districts saw improvements compared with 2022. District of Columbia Public Schools posted 10-point gains, well above the national average. D.C. schools also showed improvements for both low- and high-performing students, as did schools in Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Dade County, and Guilford County, North Carolina.

Eighth grade math was a different story. There was no change in average scores because while high performers did better than their counterparts in 2022, low performers did worse.

Middle school math has been a problem area in the pandemic’s wake. Some students struggled to learn key concepts virtually, such as how to divide fractions or graph a line. That lack of knowledge followed them. Others may have had content repeated often because their classmates were absent a lot, which put them behind in their lessons.

West, the NAEP Governing Board member, said it appeared the pandemic accelerated the decline among low-performing eighth graders in math, but it was even more striking that “the bottom continued to fall out” from 2022 to 2024.

“The main takeaway is that: What we’ve done as a nation, including the federal recovery dollars, has been insufficient,” he said.

Students who struggle in middle school often end up locked out of more advanced math in high school that can open doors to higher-paid careers in STEM fields.

Mark Miller, who teaches eighth grade math in Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain School District, said declining student motivation and “stick-to-it-ness” might be contributing. In recent years, struggling students in his classroom have needed a bigger nudge to dig in on difficult problems than when he started teaching nearly two decades ago.

“The coach in me has had to reach into my coaching motivational speeches in my classroom just as much as I have had to on the court or on the field,” said Miller, who is also a former NAEP Governing Board member. Many students think: “If I want to know something, I can look it up in two seconds, why do I need to persevere through learning how to solve systems of equations or learning how to solve a word problem?”

One thing his school is trying: Keeping kids who did not meet certain math standards in the same classes as their peers while providing extra support, instead of moving them to remedial math. The hope is that teachers can fill in gaps with mini lessons along the way, and that struggling students will feel more confident in their math abilities if they’re learning alongside their peers.

NAEP score gaps have consequences for ‘equitable society’

While the pandemic surely has had a lasting impact on students, the gap between high- and low-performers appears to have started growing about a decade ago. Similar gaps have appeared on international tests and are more stark for American students than for those in other countries that also experienced pandemic disruptions.

Theories abound: The federal government eased up on school accountability measures, and school leaders took their eyes off the lowest performers. The Great Recession, with its economic traumas followed by deep spending cuts, left a lasting scar on American education. Phones are sapping our attention span and cognitive abilities.

Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, highlighted the trend in an analysis posted last week in advance of the NAEP release. He noted that the growing divide between high and low performers even shows up on a recent skills test for adults who haven’t been in school in years, complicating the idea that something school-related is the main driver.

The trends defy easy explanations and likely have multiple causes, he said.

Tests such as NAEP can’t answer the why. But Malkus hopes that researchers with access to student-level data can start digging in more. Are low-performing students concentrated at certain schools? Do they share certain characteristics? Or are they enrolled in schools with both high and low test scores?

He also hopes that superintendents and principals seek out this data about their own schools and find ways to support low-performing students even when average test scores look good.

“What this means for the story for an equitable society is enormous,” he said.

Yet there doesn’t seem to be enough urgency to get to the bottom of the problem, said Dan Goldhaber, who directs the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research.

While his research and others found that federal pandemic aid helped academic recovery, Goldhaber said it’s reasonable to ask if it could have done more. In the rush to get money out the door, a real opportunity was missed to collect data that would have shown which interventions really move the needle for struggling students, he said.

“I think we will look back in 25 years, and we will see all these kids have these outcomes in life that were predicted by this major decline,” he said. “The message is everywhere, but I don’t see much appetite to address it.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump da luz verde a la detención de inmigrantes en las escuelas o sus alrededores

2025-01-23T04:54:36+00:00

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La administración de Trump ha despejado el camino para lograr detener a inmigrantes en escuelas o sus alrededores, poniéndole fin a una política que tiene décadas de antigüedad.

Tanto la administración del partido republicano como la del partido demócrata han considerado a las escuelas, las guarderías, las iglesias y los hospitales como áreas “sensibles” o “protegidas”, en donde las autoridades de inmigración sólo deberían intervenir en el caso de un peligro inmediato para la sociedad.

Pero los funcionarios del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de los Estados Unidos anunciaron el martes que habían derogado la última versión del memorándum, que había sido emitido por la administración de Biden en 2021. Fox News fue el primero en difundir esta noticia.

Hasta el momento no disponemos de una copia del memorándum para su revisión.

Pero en una declaración, un portavoz del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS por sus siglas en inglés) dijo que el Secretario Interino Benjamine Huffman firmó una directiva el lunes que revoca una política de áreas “sensibles”. El portavoz dijo que esta acción podría ayudar a las autoridades federales a hacer cumplir leyes de inmigración y atrapar a los criminales que han ingresado al país ilegalmente. Los agentes de inmigración encargados de hacer que se cumpla la ley deberán utilizar el “sentido común”.

“Los criminales ya no podrán esconderse en las escuelas e iglesias de Estados Unidos para evitar ser arrestados”, dice su declaración.

Desde la reelección de Trump, observadores anticiparon la eliminación de la política que considera ciertas áreas como “sensibles” con respecto a la aplicación de las leyes de inmigración. A mediados de diciembre se publicaron noticias que indicaban que la administración entrante de Trump planeaba derogar esa política. Desde ese entonces, las escuelas se han estado preparando ante la posibilidad de que los agentes de inmigración toquen sus puertas.

Inclusive antes de que existiese esta política, no se llevaban a cabo redadas migratorias masivas en las escuelas. Pero estos cambios de políticas por parte de Trump permiten que los agentes de inmigración detengan a los padres cuando están llevando o retirando a sus hijos, como ha sucedido en algunas ocasiones previas.

Los defensores por los derechos de los inmigrantes temen que esto resulte en un aumento en ausencias entre los niños que tienen padres inmigrantes. Ellos ahora temen ser detenidos por agentes de inmigración, llevando a pie o conduciendo a sus hijos a la escuela. Eso sucedió durante la primera administración de Trump. Los defensores también se preocupan ante las posibles interacciones cotidianas con la policía de la escuela. Les preocupa que estas interacciones revelen el estatus migratorio de un estudiante o una familia, y termine con uno de ellos deportado.

Algunos distritos escolares han emitido instrucciones explícitas para educadores y padres acerca de cómo el personal escolar debe actuar ante la presencia de un agente de inmigración en la escuela. Algunos distritos también han dicho que no se les permitirá la entrada a agentes federales en las instalaciones escolares sin una orden judicial. El personal escolar será instruido a llamar al abogado del sistema escolar si se presentan agentes federales en la escuela.

Algunos de los distritos más grandes del país, entre ellos Los Ángeles y Chicago, han reforzado o expandido políticas que ya existen, cuyo objetivo es proteger a los estudiantes y familias inmigrantes. La ciudad de Nueva York tiene programado votar esta semana para reafirmar una política que impida la colaboración entre los agentes de seguridad escolar y las autoridades de inmigración federal en la mayor parte de los casos.

Otros distritos, como por ejemplo varios distritos escolares de Texas cerca de la frontera entre México y los Estados Unidos, están optando por “esperar y ver”, así pueden evitar cualquier confusión o miedo entre las familias. Por otro lado, los defensores de los derechos de los inmigrantes dicen que es útil informar a las familias de sus derechos y enseñarles a elaborar un plan en caso que uno de los padres sea detenido.

El fin de la política que considera a las escuelas como áreas sensibles es solamente una de las tantas acciones ejecutivas en materia de inmigración que la nueva administración de Trump ha tomado desde que asumió la presidencia el lunes.

Trump también firmó una orden ejecutiva que espera terminar con el derecho a la ciudadanía automática para todos los nacidos en los Estados Unidos. El martes, 18 estados anunciaron que van a demandar esta medida con el fin de bloquearla.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es una periodista senior especializada en educación, ubicada en Chicago. Puedes comunicarte con ella a través de su correo electrónico: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Immigration arrests at schools loom after Trump changes longstanding policy

2025-01-21T20:04:44+00:00

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The Trump administration has cleared the way for immigration arrests at or near schools, ending a decades-old approach.

Republican and Democratic administrations alike have treated schools and child care centers, along with churches and hospitals, as “sensitive” or “protected” locations where immigration enforcement should only take place when there is an immediate danger to the public.

But U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials announced Tuesday afternoon that they had rescinded the latest version of the policy, which was issued in 2021 by the Biden administration. The news was first reported early Tuesday by Fox News.

A copy of the Homeland Security memo was not immediately available for review.

But in a statement, a Homeland Security spokesperson said that Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive on Monday that rescinded the sensitive locations policy. The spokesperson said the action would help federal authorities enforce immigration law and catch criminals who entered the country illegally. Immigration agents will be asked to use “common sense” in enforcing the law.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement read.

Since Trump’s reelection, observers anticipated the end of treating certain locations as “sensitive” with respect to immigration enforcement. News reports surfaced in mid-December that the incoming Trump administration was planning to get rid of the policy. Since then, schools have been bracing for the possibility of immigration agents showing up at their doors.

Even before this policy existed, large-scale immigration raids weren’t conducted at schools. But Trump’s policy change paves the way for immigration agents to detain parents during dropoff or pickup, as has happened occasionally in the past.

Immigrant rights advocates worry that could lead to more absenteeism among children with immigrant parents, who may now fear being stopped by immigration agents while driving or walking their kids to school. That happened during the first Trump administration. Advocates also worry about the potential for routine interactions with school police to reveal a student or family’s immigration status, and lead to their deportation.

Some school districts have issued explicit instructions to educators and parents about how school staff should handle an immigration agent’s presence on campus. Some districts have also said they will not permit a federal agent on school premises without a judicial warrant, and that staff will be instructed to call the school system’s lawyer if these agents do show up.

Some of the nation’s largest districts, including Los Angeles and Chicago, have re-upped or expanded existing policies meant to protect immigrant students and families. New York City is scheduled to vote on a resolution this week that would reaffirm a policy preventing school safety agents from collaborating with federal immigration authorities in most cases.

Others, including several Texas school districts near the U.S.-Mexico border, are taking a “wait and see” approach to avoid causing confusion or fear among families. At the same time, immigrant rights advocates say it’s helpful to inform families of their rights and show them how to make a plan in case a parent is detained.

The end of treating schools as sensitive locations is just one of many executive actions on immigration that the new Trump administration has taken since taking office on Monday.

Trump also signed an executive order that seeks to end the automatic right to citizenship for any child born in the U.S. On Tuesday, 18 states announced they were suing to block the policy change.

This story has been updated to include confirmation and comments from the Department of Homeland Security about the policy change.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Many schools used COVID aid on long-term needs like curriculum and buildings, new report says

2025-01-15T14:00:00+00:00

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When schools were handed an unprecedented $129 billion in federal pandemic aid, it wasn’t surprising that COVID-related equipment topped the shopping list as schools rushed to snap up hotspots, laptops, desk dividers, and air filters.

But another widespread pattern is emerging as federal officials tally up the spending: Many districts also used their one-time funding to take care of longstanding needs, like replacing aging infrastructure and outdated textbooks, that schools previously wanted to tackle but could not afford to do so.

Around 1 in 3 school districts and charter operators nationwide, or some 5,200, used COVID relief during the 2022-23 school year to adopt new curriculum or learning materials, a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Education found. That made it the most common strategy to address learning loss, which schools spent $11 billion on that year.

Schools spent some $6 billion in federal pandemic aid that same year to upgrade and maintain their facilities. That meant 1 out of every 10 COVID relief dollars spent during the 2022-23 school year went toward a school building. It was six times more than what states spent on tutoring.

And half of all COVID relief dollars schools spent that year, or just under $25 billion, were spent on staff salaries and benefits. A good chunk of that went toward paying new social workers and school nurses, which schools added to their ranks in droves with the aid.

Now that the COVID aid is mostly gone — schools have until the end of this month to spend it, unless they seek an extension — schools are confronting big questions about how they will cover curriculum overhauls and critical building repairs going forward, as well as how many of those additional staffers will lose their jobs. Many school districts, especially those with declining enrollments, are considering closing schools or cutting programs to balance their budgets.

The report looks at how the nation’s roughly 16,000 school districts and charter operators spent just over $49 billion in COVID relief dollars during the 2022-23 school year. Nearly all of the first two COVID relief packages had been exhausted and schools were halfway through spending their last and largest aid package by the end of the 2022-23 school year. Schools had spent some $117 billion in pandemic aid by that point.

Investing in people and projects with the potential for long-term payoffs made sense, federal officials say, and the Biden administration encouraged this type of spending.

Federal officials also believe provisions in the COVID aid laws that required states to maintain their own school funding will help schools return to more usual levels of funding more easily than they did following the Great Recession. When stimulus packages enacted in the wake of that financial crisis expired, many states slashed education funding and schools cut hundreds of thousands of jobs, dramatically shrinking the size of the K-12 education workforce.

“There are certainly difficult decisions that are going to get made after $130 billion is fully invested,” said Adam Schott, the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. “We are just not seeing the type of fiscal cliff that we saw 10, 12, 15 years ago.”

Part of the reason for that, Schott said, is that the Biden administration urged schools to spend the pandemic aid on both immediate needs but also long-term academic goals.

To the administration, investing in school buildings — and getting rid of issues like asbestos, mold, and lead — was also crucial.

“For decades, we’ve known that a classroom that’s 90 degrees in May or in September is an impediment to in-person learning,” Schott said. “We saw this as really core to academic recovery.”

Pennsylvania's New Kensington-Arnold School District, like many across the U.S., used COVID aid to make long-term improvements to school buildings.

Many schools spent on curriculum amid worrying test scores

The new data about spending on curriculum and classroom materials comes as many states and districts overhaul their approach to teaching reading and math, opting for materials that better align with the science of how children learn.

That spending also coincides with several years of national and international test score data showing that American children are academically stagnant or falling behind their earlier counterparts. That was true even before the pandemic. But the trend is especially stark for kids who score the lowest on math and reading tests.

And while recent state test scores have shown some students are rebounding to pre-pandemic levels, “We are clearly not where we ought to be,” Schott said.

Federal COVID relief dollars improved student test scores, two new studies find

Now that the federal COVID aid is gone, “states have to be ready to grab the baton,” he added, whether that’s finding new ways to spend existing federal funding, or adding money to state education budgets. “We’re going to keep beating that drum with every minute we’ve got left.”

The new federal report also comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to start his second term in a few days. It’s unclear how or if top education officials in his administration will push schools to continue pandemic-era programs.

On the campaign trail, Trump and his supporters said they wanted to get rid of the federal education department or shrink its powers, and give more responsibility to state officials — who already largely control what and how kids learn.

By the 2022-23 school year, most students were back to learning in person for a second school year. The pandemic was declared officially over halfway through the school year. But many students were struggling to follow the routines of school. Student absenteeism rates were still abnormally high.

Expanded summer programming was a very common investment — though it’s unclear if some of these programs helped kids improve academically. About 2 in 5 school districts or charter school operators used COVID aid on summer programs that school year, reaching around 4.5 million students.

A smaller number of districts and charter operators — around 1 in 10 nationally, or around 2,100 — used pandemic money to add instructional time. Researchers were a fan of that strategy, but educators often found it was difficult to pull off.

Meanwhile, states spent $1 billion on tutoring that school year, and districts ran intensive tutoring programs that reached some 3 million kids, or around 6% of public school students. Of those students, around half were from low-income families, while 13% were students with disabilities and 14% were learning English as a new language — suggesting that many students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds did not receive tutoring.

Earlier estimates have suggested less than 10% of students were getting tutoring thanks to COVID aid — a figure researchers have already said was likely much smaller than the share of kids who needed extra academic help after the pandemic’s disruptions to learning.

The report points out that COVID aid helped to put “more people working in America’s schools than at any time in the last decade.” As of October 2024, the report notes, schools had added some 643,000 jobs since 2021, with a 43% increase in social workers and a 23% increase in school nurses.

Some school finance experts have criticized schools for adding many new staffers or programs that they couldn’t afford to keep after the COVID aid ran out. They’ve said the hiring and firing is destabilizing, especially for schools that already had more staff turnover prior to the pandemic.

Still, Schott defended that use of the money. He pointed out that some of the added spending helped to raise low teacher pay or invest in gummed-up educator pipelines. Other spending got “more caring eyes on kids” at a chaotic time.

“You couldn’t maintain consistency for kids, you couldn’t deliver instruction, you couldn’t get core nutrition services flowing without people,” he said.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

¿Las escuelas están a salvo de agentes de inmigración? Lo que tienes que saber

2025-01-06T21:15:40+00:00

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Actualizado: Trump permite las detenciones de inmigrantes en las escuelas o sus alrededores

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Durante tres décadas, la política federal ha restringido los arrestos migratorios en las escuelas y sus alrededores, clasificando estos espacios educativos como áreas “sensibles” o “protegidas”.

Según informes recientes de NBC News, es probable que el presidente electo Donald Trump cancele esa política poco después de su regreso a la Casa Blanca.

Esto podría dar pie a que los agentes migratorios detengan a los padres con más frecuencia al llevar a sus hijos a la escuela, o a que las interacciones con la policía escolar resulten en la detención tanto de estudiantes como de sus padres.

Los educadores y defensores de los derechos de los niños inmigrantes expresan su preocupación debido al clima de miedo que se genera, ya que las consecuencias podrían ser que las familias dejen de enviar a sus hijos a la escuela o eviten participar en actividades escolares. Además, podría interrumpir el aprendizaje de los niños y dificultar que los educadores establezcan relaciones de confianza con las familias inmigrantes.

“Las implicaciones serían enormes”, señaló Patricia Gándara, profesora de educación en la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles (UCLA), quien ha investigado el impacto de la aplicación de las leyes migratorias en los niños y las escuelas. Cuando las familias se enteran de que la Oficina de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) tiene “la autoridad para intervenir en las escuelas, comienzan a circular rumores. Y ni siquiera es necesario que esto ocurra para que se difunda en la comunidad que la ICE está cerca, lo que hace que las familias no lleven a sus hijos a la escuela”.

Se estima que 4.4 millones de niños nacidos en EE.UU. tienen al menos un padre indocumentado, mientras que alrededor de 733,000 niños en edad escolar son indocumentados. Otros estudiantes poseen autorización para residir en el país, pero su estatus migratorio es temporal, y Trump ha amenazado con revocar estos permisos. Investigadores calculan que medio millón de niños en edad escolar han llegado a los Estados Unidos en los últimos dos años.

La legislación federal tiene prioridad sobre las leyes estatales y locales, y los agentes de inmigración cuentan con una amplia autoridad para detener a aquellas personas que sospechen que están en el país ilegalmente. A pesar de ello, varios distritos escolares importantes ya han renovado o ampliado las políticas que implementaron durante la primera administración de Trump para brindar seguridad a estudiantes y familias. Asimismo, legisladores en California, donde 1 de cada 5 niños pertenece a una familia con al menos un familiar indocumentado, han presentado proyectos de ley para proteger a los estudiantes inmigrantes.

Viridiana Carrizales, CEO de ImmSchools, una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada a formar a líderes educativos y docentes sobre cómo respaldar a los estudiantes inmigrantes cuando Trump asuma la presidencia, comentó que ha estado orientando a los distritos escolares. Les recuerda que, aunque se termine la política de lugares sensibles, los estudiantes siguen manteniendo ciertos derechos.

“Eso no implica que, en caso de que un oficial de inmigración se presente y solicite el expediente de un estudiante, la escuela deba entregarlo”, aclaró Carrizales. “Deseo que nuestras familias no sientan que no pueden salir de sus hogares, no se puede vivir así”.

Pero dichos esfuerzos no constituyen garantías de seguridad en las inmediaciones de las escuelas.

En 2020, Verónica del Carmen Lara Márquez fue arrestada por agentes de inmigración justo después de dejar a su hija de 4 años en un elementary school en Filadelfia. El arresto derivó de una orden judicial por no haber acudido a audiencias migratorias fuera del estado. Fue detenida en una parada de autobús, pero liberada poco después por motivos humanitarios, ya que en ese momento Lara Márquez estaba embarazada de tres meses.

Expertos afirman que las escuelas deben implementar políticas claras y capacitación en inmigración

Desde la década de 1990, los funcionarios federales han limitado los arrestos e investigaciones en las instalaciones escolares. Bajo la presidencia de Barack Obama, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EE. UU. emitió en 2011 un memorando que restringía la aplicación de la ley migratoria en áreas “sensibles”, incluyendo escuelas, guarderías, universidades, eventos escolares y paradas de autobús con niños presentes.

El presidente Joe Biden amplió la política en 2021 para incluir más áreas “protegidas”. Esto abarcó cualquier lugar de encuentro para los niños, como parques, centros de recreación y programas después del horario escolar.

Sin embargo, los agentes pueden y han realizado acciones de control migratorio cerca de las escuelas. Por lo general, los oficiales de inmigración necesitan la autorización de un supervisor para realizar un arresto o una entrevista cerca de una escuela. Aunque, hay excepciones en situaciones relacionadas con la seguridad nacional o amenazas a la seguridad pública.

Aunque Trump no modificó la política de lugares sensibles durante su primer mandato, su reelección estuvo marcada por propuestas migratorias más estrictas. Entre ellas, destacó un plan para llevar a cabo deportaciones masivas. El Proyecto 2025, elaborado por exfuncionarios y nuevos miembros del equipo de la Casa Blanca de Trump, es un conjunto de políticas que recomendó eliminar cualquier directiva vigente. En particular, propuso revocar las “zonas sensibles”, que es donde se debía limitar la aplicación de las leyes migratorias.

El equipo de transición de Trump no emitió comentarios ante las solicitudes.

Carrizales destacó que, frente a la posible modificación de las políticas, es fundamental que las escuelas cuenten con protocolos claros que regulen cómo el personal y la policía escolar deben interactuar, o no, con los agentes federales de inmigración. Es esencial que el personal esté informado acerca de si es necesario solicitar una orden judicial o un mandato, o si las consultas deben ser derivadas al superintendente y al equipo legal del distrito.

La capacitación en esta política debe llegar a todos los empleados escolares, incluyendo tanto al personal administrativo como a los directores. También debe ser traducida y distribuida entre las familias.

Las escuelas tienen la opción de revisar si los formularios habituales, como los destinados a solicitar comidas escolares gratuitas o a bajo costo, solicitan información que pueda revelar el estatus migratorio, como el número de Seguridad Social. (De acuerdo con el fallo histórico Plyler contra Doe de la Corte Suprema, las escuelas no deberían indagar sobre el estatus migratorio de las familias, ya que esto podría intimidar a las familias indocumentadas y vulnerar el derecho de sus hijos a la educación pública).

Es probable que las familias se mantengan en estado de alerta. Según Carrizales, algunas incluso han expresado preocupación por inscribir a sus hijos en programas de enseñanza bilingüe, temiendo que esa información pueda delatar su origen como familia inmigrante.

Carrizales señaló que las escuelas podrían considerar modificar sus formularios o dejar claro a las familias que no se requiere información relacionada con el estatus migratorio.

En algunos estados y distritos escolares, se están adoptando esfuerzos adicionales para garantizar mayor protección.

Un superintendente vio como una redada de inmigración “desgarradora” alteró sus escuelas y comunidades. Este es su consejo.

Tony Thurmond, el superintendente de las escuelas de California, está apoyando dos proyectos de ley que limitarían la aplicación de las leyes migratorias en los alrededores de las escuelas en su estado.

La primera iniciativa busca impedir que los oficiales de inmigración ingresen a las instalaciones escolares sin una identificación válida, una orden judicial, un propósito claramente definido y la autorización del superintendente del distrito. Sin embargo, incluso con estos requisitos, no se permitiría su entrada si hay niños en el lugar. Por otro lado, el segundo proyecto de ley, presentado esta semana, propone que la policía local no pueda colaborar con las autoridades migratorias en un radio de una milla alrededor de las escuelas. Con ello, se busca garantizar la seguridad de las familias en los horarios de entrada y salida escolar.

En un esfuerzo por proteger a los estudiantes inmigrantes, la junta escolar de Chicago aprobó el mes pasado una resolución que bloquea el acceso de oficiales de inmigración a las escuelas y limita su interacción con el personal escolar, salvo que presenten una orden judicial penal. De forma similar, la junta escolar de Los Ángeles adoptó una medida que busca capacitar al personal del distrito para responder a intentos de ingreso de agentes federales a las instalaciones escolares.

Mientras tanto, Nueva York ha renovado su política histórica, que impide el acceso de las fuerzas del orden externas a la ciudad en los edificios escolares, excepto en situaciones concretas. La ciudad también está brindando capacitación a los directores y agentes de seguridad escolar acerca de los protocolos a seguir.

Es probable que la administración de Trump intente impugnar las políticas de “santuario”. Asesores cercanos al presidente electo consideran retener fondos federales y otros recursos a las ciudades lideradas por demócratas, en caso de que se nieguen a colaborar con la deportación de inmigrantes indocumentados, según informó el Washington Post el mes pasado. Aún no está claro dónde termina el poder de un distrito escolar y comienza la autoridad de un oficial de inmigración federal.

“Los estados han tenido desde siempre una gran libertad para dar forma a las políticas educativas, incluyendo aquellas que establecen las condiciones para garantizar un entorno escolar seguro y acogedor”, señaló Nicholas Espíritu, subdirector del Centro Nacional de Derecho de la Inmigración. “Si bien existen situaciones en las que la línea entre el poder federal y estatal puede volverse difusa, los estados realmente poseen la capacidad de definir sus propias normativas sobre seguridad en las escuelas”.

Un ejemplo de esto es el de un superintendente escolar en Nebraska, quien vivió una redada migratoria en 2006 en su comunidad. Él mismo confesó recientemente que su mayor error fue haber garantizado a las familias que los oficiales de inmigración no entrarían a la escuela.

Más tarde, recibió una llamada de un oficial de inmigración que le dijo: “Quiero que sepa que está equivocado, tenemos jurisdicción. Si queremos ingresar a sus escuelas, podemos hacerlo.”

Leves infracciones pueden derivar en arrestos migratorios

Incluso con la política de lugares sensibles vigente, hubo incidentes que captaron la atención pública durante la primera administración de Trump: padres fueron detenidos al ir o regresar de la escuela de sus hijos.

En 2017, por ejemplo, agentes de inmigración arrestaron a Romulo Avelica-González minutos después de dejar a su hija de 12 años en un middle school de Los Ángeles. Su otra hija, de 13 años en ese momento, grabó un video del momento, entre sollozos. La detención se produjo a raíz de dos condenas por delitos menores: un DUI (conducir bajo la influencia del alcohol) de hace diez años y otra por recibir una pegatina de registro de vehículo robada.

Romulo Avelica-González fue liberado después de seis meses de detención. Sin embargo, el arresto sembró una profunda preocupación en la comunidad, en la que muchos temen ser los próximos en enfrentar la misma suerte.

La constante amenaza de deportación ha repercutido en la vida diaria de las familias. En Broward, Florida, durante el primer mandato de Trump, algunos padres inmigrantes comenzaron a acompañar a sus hijos a la escuela caminando, para evitar cualquier contacto con la policía que pudiera derivarse de una infracción de tráfico. Otros, con el mismo temor, mandaban a sus hijos con documentos migratorios guardados en las mochilas.

Cómo una nueva coalición defiende los derechos educativos de niños indocumentados

En la ciudad de Nueva York, las escuelas con niños inmigrantes se vieron obligadas a buscar formas de incluir a los padres. Muchos de ellos, no asistían a eventos, como las reuniones con los maestros, por miedo a las repercusiones que tendría el hecho de ser detectados.

Para reducir la preocupación, las escuelas podrían asociarse con grupos locales de derechos de inmigrantes. Organizar talleres sobre los derechos de los padres podría ayudarles a saber cómo actuar en caso de ser detenidos al ir o venir de la escuela de sus hijos.

“Estamos asegurándonos de que nuestras familias sepan que, aunque sus derechos puedan ser restringidos, todavía existen derechos que debemos conocer”, señaló Carrizales, quien también fue indocumentada. “Lo más esencial es que, si alguien les pregunta sobre su estatus migratorio, no deben responder ni firmar ningún documento.”

Además, hay inquietudes sobre cómo las interacciones cotidianas con la policía podrían poner a estudiantes y familias inmigrantes en riesgo de ser atrapados en procesos de deportación.

En 2007, un estudiante de noveno grado del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Tucson, en Arizona, fue deportado junto con su familia después de que los oficiales escolares encontraron una pequeña cantidad de marihuana en su mochila. La escuela llamó a la policía local, que notificó a la Patrulla Fronteriza sobre el estatus migratorio de la familia. Los agentes de inmigración llegaron al high school del joven y lo detuvieron a él y a su familia.

Después, los funcionarios escolares señalaron que la policía habría debido esperar para llamar a los agentes de inmigración hasta que la familia estuviera fuera del establecimiento, pues su llegada desató rumores sobre una posible redada en la escuela.

Andrew Hairston, director de un proyecto de justicia educativa en la organización sin ánimo de lucro Texas Appleseed, teme que casos como este puedan volverse más comunes si Trump rescinde la política de lugares sensibles. En Texas, por ejemplo, las escuelas públicas están obligadas a tener un oficial armado en las instalaciones durante el horario escolar.

“Mi mayor miedo es que, en este contexto de vigilancia policial en las escuelas, los jóvenes se vean privados de su dignidad solo por asistir a la escuela y tratar de aprender lo mejor posible”, señaló Hairston. “Si además se añade la idea de que ICE podría entrar a hacer cumplir las leyes migratorias, el ambiente se llena de una gran incertidumbre”.

Según Carrizales, de ImmSchools, los distritos escolares que tienen sus propios departamentos policíacos deben establecer procedimientos claros para regular la interacción de los agentes escolares con los funcionarios de inmigración y comunicar esta información a las familias.

La eliminación de la política de lugares sensibles no significa que “los policías escolares puedan asumir el rol de agentes migratorios o colaborar con los funcionarios de inmigración”, subrayó. “Es esencial que los distritos expliquen esto claramente a las familias”.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es una periodista senior especializada en educación, ubicada en Chicago. Puedes comunicarte con ella a través de su correo electrónico: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Many LGBTQ kids need support following Trump’s reelection. This Kentucky school librarian has advice

2025-01-03T12:00:00+00:00

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When Amber Faris was studying to be a journalist, a visit to a high school classroom for a college assignment prompted a pivot. She became an English teacher instead.

“This is the energy that I am looking for,” Faris recalls thinking to herself as she observed the class. “I always felt very passionate about journalism and speaking truth to power. But I was like: I could do that with young people.”

After two decades of teaching, Faris switched it up again last year, this time to become the library media specialist at her Lexington, Kentucky, high school, which is part of Fayette County Public Schools.

One of Amber Faris' favorite book displays this year featured the singer Chappell Roan.

Now Faris is recommending books on Dunbar High School’s morning news, hosting reading challenges for students and staff — like last year’s 24 for 2024 — and crafting elaborate displays to entice teens to check out new titles. In recent months, that’s included an homage to the singer Chappell Roan and a collection of banned books draped in yellow caution tape.

Her community hasn’t seen the kinds of book challenges happening elsewhere in Kentucky, but Faris keeps tabs on them in case she ever needs to defend her catalog.

“That’s the hill I’ll die on,’” she said. “I’m a huge supporter of: We have to have books to support all of our children’s identities and perspectives. It builds empathy, it builds character. … This library is seen as the safe space, and I want to keep it that way.”

Amber Faris uses creative book displays, like this one of banned books, to get students interested in new titles.

Faris has also been the sponsor of Dunbar’s Gay-Straight Alliance, or GSA, for nearly two decades, a position that gives her insight into how support for LGBTQ students in Kentucky has improved — and come under fire.

Her district, for example, is working to make sure each high school and middle school has its own GSA, and GSAs get funding so they can pay for activities like guest speakers and field trips. GSA sponsors meet monthly, and there’s a district official who oversees LGBTQ equity issues.

“Having people at your district show up and say: ‘This is the right thing to do,’” really matters, Faris said.

But there are limits. Last school year, when LGBTQ high schoolers tried to gather to voice how their schools could better protect them from harassment and discrimination, the district canceled the forum. That was likely due to a 2023 Kentucky law that prohibits instruction and presentations about gender identity and sexual orientation.

Instead, students attended a voluntary event with their parents’ permission. It was hosted at Dunbar. At the time, Faris told her school’s student newspaper she felt like “our LGBTQ+ students are just kind of being brushed aside and treated like second-class citizens.”

Chalkbeat talked with Faris over the course of two interviews — one in mid-November and another in mid-December — about how the students in her school’s GSA are responding to Donald Trump’s reelection, how she helps teens figure out what they might want to read, and what’s on her holiday reading list.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you make the switch from teaching English to being a school librarian?

The library had always been my place. It was just kind of a natural progression.

I love doing research. I’ve always, even with my freshman, taught [students] how to do a database search, how to cite, and how to back up your thesis with evidence. I knew that that was really transferable to the library.

I’ve always been a massive proponent of reading for pleasure and trying to read what high school students read. I read between 125 and 150 books a year. I had outside reading as a part of my class. I don’t care what it is. We would read together, every day, for 15 minutes, and I would read with them.

I always tell people: Scroll less, read more.

How do you approach student requests for book recommendations?

I do a lot of what I call ‘five-minute manias’ with them. [Those are] like book tastings. I put out a bunch of different books from a bunch of different genres and authors. I’ll just have them grab a book that looks interesting and read the title. Does that look interesting? Okay, read the back cover. Do you still like it? Okay, read the inside cover. Read the first sentence, and then have them share why they either liked it or they didn’t. And then have them read the first page.

School librarian Amber Faris hosts reading challenges and book clubs to get students interested in reading diverse books.

A lot of times, that’s all they needed to know that that was something that they could actually get into, which helps them find books.

How are students in your GSA responding to Trump’s reelection? How are you helping staff to support LGBTQ students?

The day after the election, I did a: ‘Hey, I know some of you all may be feeling not so great, so I’m here if you want to talk about it.’ They were all just so happy to have that space.

I just let them vent. Of course, there’s a lot of venting about not feeling safe. We have some kids at our school that are trans, that are definitely wondering how their health care is going to move forward or if it’s going to be stalled.

There’s a lot of fear and frustration. But we have each other. They know they have people at school who care about them.

Part of my job is to make sure that everybody in our school is thinking about the LGBTQ kids and how we can help them. I sent an email [the week after the election] about being aware that this can be really hard for these kids, and to watch out for them, because they’re already at such a high [risk] for suicide and depression.

I shared an article from The Washington Post about how calls to crisis lines [from LGBTQ youth] were up like 700% [after the presidential election]. I’m just reminding people: We have a GSA, it’s Mondays after school, they can contact me. And I reiterated at GSA that we have two mental health specialists. I’m like: It’s okay to go talk to your therapist or the mental health specialist about your feelings, because your feelings are valid, and I know you’re afraid, and that’s okay.

It’s hard in a district like ours, where we definitely live in a pretty blue dot in a red state. A few of them may live in purple neighborhoods, but for the most part, we’re pretty accepting. We’re a college town. They know that they have options to go to colleges that have accepting housing and programs.

I have not heard them say anything just yet like: ‘We want to do X [in response to the election].’ But I feel like the younger ones, it’s been more of: ‘I can’t wait to vote. I can’t wait to be able to have my voice heard.’

What are some of your favorite books to introduce students to and why?

This is a holiday one that I’ve recommended, and it’s called “Finding My Elf.” It’s by David Valdes. It’s a male-to-male queer book.

It’s [about] a high school kid who went to NYU to be the theater major and has come home from college, and is just flunking out. Small-town kid that thinks New York is gonna change them, and then they’re just floundering. And they’re trying to tell their single dad that things aren’t going well, and they might lose their scholarship. Then he gets this job as an elf — if you imagine like Santaland Diaries.

It’s definitely kind of an enemies-to-lovers, not-everything-is-what-it-seems [story]. I love how it dealt with mental health and expectations of your parents and first-generation [college-going] type stuff.

We want to spread Black joy and queer joy. And yes, there’s tons of books out there that have awful things happening in them that kids need to read, too. But books like what I’m talking about: It’s an easy read, it’s short, but it’s funny, and it’s sweet, and it deals with realistic issues in a meaningful way without it being cheesy. Those are the types of books that I’m looking for.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Potential for immigration arrests at schools under Trump spurs push to shield families

2024-12-18T22:05:03+00:00

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For three decades, federal policy has limited immigration arrests at or near schools, treating the places where children learn as “sensitive” or “protected” areas.

But President-elect Donald Trump likely will rescind that policy soon after his return to the White House, according to recent reporting from NBC News.

That could open the door for immigration agents to more frequently stop parents as they drop their kids off at school, or for interactions with school police to lead to students and their parents being detained.

Educators and advocates for immigrant children worry that would create an environment of fear that could deter families from bringing their children to school or participating in school events. That could, in turn, interrupt kids’ learning and make it harder for educators to build trusting relationships with immigrant families.

“The implications would be enormous,” said Patricia Gándara, an education professor at UCLA who’s researched how immigration enforcement affects children and schools. When families know that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has “the authority to move in on the school, it starts rumors. And you don’t even have to have this happen for it to spread throughout the community that the ICE are around the school, don’t take your kid to school.”

An estimated 4.4 million U.S.-born children have at least one undocumented parent, and an estimated 733,000 school aged-kids are undocumented themselves. Other students may have authorization to live in the United States but hold temporary immigration statuses that Trump has threatened to revoke. Researchers estimate that half a million school-age children have arrived in the U.S. just in the last two years.

Federal law generally overrides state and local statutes, and immigration agents have broad authority to detain people they suspect of being in the country illegally. Nonetheless, several large school districts already have reupped or expanded policies they crafted during the first Trump administration to reassure students and parents. And lawmakers in California — where 1 in 5 children are part of a family with at least one undocumented member — have put forward bills that seek to protect immigrant students.

Viridiana Carrizales, the CEO of ImmSchools, a nonprofit that’s training school leaders and educators on how they can support immigrant students as Trump takes office, said she’s been advising school districts that even if the sensitive locations policy ends, students still have certain rights.

“It doesn’t mean that we’re going to have an immigration official come, and if they ask for a student’s record, that doesn’t mean that the school has to comply,” Carrizales said. “I want to make sure our families don’t feel like they can’t even go out of their homes. Because that’s not a way to live.”

But those efforts aren’t the same as guarantees of safety at or near schools.

In 2020, immigration agents arrested Verónica del Carmen Lara Márquez shortly after she dropped off her 4-year-old daughter at a Philadelphia elementary school. The arrest stemmed from a court order for failing to appear at immigration hearings out of state. She was detained at a bus stop but released shortly after on humanitarian grounds — Lara Márquez was three months pregnant at the time.

Advocates: Schools need clear policies, training on immigration

Federal officials have limited arrests and investigations on school grounds since at least the early 1990s. Under President Barack Obama the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a memo in 2011 that limited immigration enforcement at or near “sensitive locations,” which included schools, daycares, colleges, school events, and bus stops with children waiting at them.

The policy was expanded to additional “protected areas” under President Joe Biden in 2021. That included any places where children gather, such as playgrounds, recreation centers, and after-school programs.

Even so, agents can and have conducted enforcement near schools. Generally, immigration officials need to get permission from a supervisor before making an arrest or conducting an interview near a school, though there are exceptions for matters of national security or threats to public safety.

Trump left the sensitive locations policy intact during his first term, but won re-election with a series of hardline immigration proposals, including a plan for mass deportations. Project 2025, a policy playbook drafted by several former and incoming Trump White House officials, called for rescinding any memos that identify “sensitive zones” where immigration enforcement should be limited.

The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment.

With that likely change on the horizon, Carrizales said now is a good time for schools to make sure they have clear policies outlining how school staff and school police interact, or don’t, with federal immigration officials. School staff should know, for example, if they’re supposed to ask for a warrant or judicial order, or if they should immediately direct any inquiries to the district’s superintendent and legal counsel.

All school staff — from the front office clerks to school principals — should be trained on the policy. It also should be translated and shared with families.

Schools can also check to see if commonly used forms, such as applications for free or reduced-price school meals, ask for information that conveys immigration status, like a Social Security Number. (Schools generally aren’t supposed to ask families about their immigration status because it can scare undocumented families and violate their children’s right to a public education, as laid out in Plyler v Doe, a landmark Supreme Court ruling.)

Families are likely to be on high alert. Carrizales said she’s even heard from families worried about their child being enrolled in a dual language program, because they fear that information could signal they’re from an immigrant family.

Schools may consider changing their forms, or making it clear to families that immigration information isn’t required, Carrizales said.

Some states and school districts are trying to add additional layers of protection.

California’s schools superintendent, Tony Thurmond, for example, is backing two pieces of legislation that would limit immigration enforcement near schools in that state.

The first would prohibit immigration officers from entering school buildings without a valid ID, a court order, a statement of purpose, and approval from the school district’s superintendent. Even if they met those requirements, agents couldn’t enter while kids were present. The second bill, introduced earlier this week, would prohibit local police from cooperating with immigration officials within one mile of a school, in an attempt to make families feel safe dropping off and picking up their children.

Chicago’s school board passed a resolution last month doubling down on a commitment to protect immigrant students, including blocking immigration officials from entering schools or interacting with school staff without a criminal warrant. The Los Angeles school board passed a similar resolution about training district staff on how they’d respond if a federal official tried to enter a school campus.

New York City, meanwhile, reissued its longstanding policy that prevents non-city law enforcement from going into school buildings except in specific cases, and is training principals and school safety agents about the protocols.

Still, it’s likely the Trump administration or others will try to challenge so-called “sanctuary” policies like these. Already, advisers to the incoming president are looking to withhold federal funds and other resources from Democrat-led cities if they refuse to participate in deporting undocumented immigrants, the Washington Post reported last month. Where exactly a school district’s power starts and a federal immigration official’s authority ends is unclear.

“There is wide and longstanding latitude for states to shape educational policy, and that includes things like what it takes to create a safe and welcoming school environment,” said Nicholas Espíritu, a deputy director at the National Immigration Law Center. “There are at times a gray zone about when that federal power can supersede or preempt the state power, but states do, in fact, have wide latitude to establish policies about school safety.”

Case in point: A Nebraska school superintendent who weathered an immigration raid in his community in 2006 recently said his biggest regret was telling families that immigration officials wouldn’t be allowed on school property.

He later got a call from an immigration official telling him: “I want you to know you’re wrong, we have jurisdiction. If we want to go into your schools we can.”

Minor offenses can prompt immigration arrests

Even with a sensitive locations policy in place, there were high-profile cases of parents who were stopped on their way to or from their child’s school during the first Trump administration.

In 2017, for example, immigration agents arrested Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez a few minutes after he dropped off his 12-year-old daughter at a Los Angeles middle school. His other daughter, then 13, recorded a video of the encounter while sobbing. Two misdemeanor convictions prompted the stop: a decade-old DUI and another for receiving a stolen vehicle registration sticker.

The father was released after six months in detention, but the arrest spread fear throughout his community.

Living under the threat of deportation has had ripple effects. During Trump’s first term, some immigrant parents in Florida’s Broward County started walking their kids to school instead of driving, in order to avoid committing traffic infractions leading to interactions with police. Others sent their kids to school with immigration paperwork tucked in their backpacks.

In New York City, schools that serve new immigrant students had to coax in parents who were afraid to attend parent-teacher conferences and open-school nights.

To quell those fears, schools can work with community-based organizations or local immigrant rights groups to host know-your-rights workshops so parents know what to do if they’re stopped on their way to or from their child’s school.

“We’re reminding our families that: Yes, they may be limited, but we still have rights, and it’s important for us to know what those rights are,” said Carrizales, who used to be undocumented herself. “One of the biggest things is if anybody comes and asks you what your immigration status is, for our families not to respond and not to sign anything.”

There’s also concerns that routine interactions with police could lead immigrant students and families to get caught up in deportation proceedings.

In 2007, a ninth grader in Arizona’s Tucson Unified School District was deported with his family after school officials found a small amount of marijuana in his backpack. The school called local police, who notified the Border Patrol of the family’s immigration status. Immigration agents showed up at the boy’s high school and took him and his family into custody.

School officials later said police should have waited to call immigration agents until the family was off campus because their arrival sparked rumors of an immigration raid at the school.

Andrew Hairston, who directs the education justice project at the nonprofit Texas Appleseed, worries cases like this could become more common if Trump rescinds the sensitive locations policy. In Texas, for example, public schools are required to have an armed officer on campus during school hours.

“My great fear is that with this police state that exists on school campuses, young people are often deprived of their inherent dignity just to go to school and do their best to learn,” Hairston said. “Then when you add this rhetoric on, that ICE might come in and enforce immigration laws, then you really just have this environment of trepidation.”

Carrizales, of ImmSchools, says school districts that have their own police departments should have clear protocols for how school police would interact with an immigration agent and communicate those with families.

If the sensitive places policy goes away, that doesn’t mean “district police get to become immigration agents or get to operate with immigration officials,” she said. “It’s really important for districts to make that very clear for families.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org

Native American students missed more school during the pandemic. Here’s how schools responded.

2024-12-03T05:01:00+00:00

This story is a collaboration with the Associated Press.

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Bernalillo Public Schools had attendance struggles before. But not like this.

Prior to the pandemic, a third of students in the New Mexico district missed 18 days of school or more in a year, marking them chronically absent. By the 2022-23 school year, that had spiked to over three-quarters. For Native American students, the problem was especially acute: One in 3 missed nearly two full months of class that year.

Bernalillo’s schools serve seven Pueblo communities north of Albuquerque, and just over half of the district’s 2,900 students are Native American. Leaders knew they had to do something, but the response took teamwork.

Schools added events that made campuses feel more welcoming and brought families in the door. Several Pueblo leaders pledged to bring kids to school if they missed their morning bus. Truancy officers, who are from the communities they serve, made sure kids had clean clothes and access to laundry facilities.

And when school staffers called home to inquire about an absent child, they emphasized that they were not calling to get the family in trouble.

Attendance Clerk Katrice Grant speaks to siblings Melanie Pacheco, 8, left, and Marilynn Pacheco, 5, in the hallway before they head to their classrooms at Algodones Elementary School.

“It’s about: We’re here to help, we care about you, we care about your families,” said Lynette Deuel, the district manager who oversees attendance. “It’s also your tone when you’re talking with families. Sometimes it’s not what you say, but how you say it.”

Years after COVID-19 disrupted American schools, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance. But attendance has been worse for Native American and Alaska Native students — a disparity that existed before the pandemic and has since grown, according to data collected by The Associated Press.

These Native tribes are working with schools to boost attendance

Out of 34 states with data available for the 2022-2023 school year, half, including Colorado and New York, had absenteeism rates for Native students that were at least 9 percentage points higher than the state average. In two dozen states, including New Mexico, absenteeism rates increased more sharply for Native students following the pandemic than they did for students statewide.

Many schools serving Native American students have been working to strengthen connections with families, many of which struggle with higher rates of illness and poverty. Schools also must navigate distrust dating back to the U.S. government’s campaign to break up Native American culture, language, and identity by forcing children into abusive boarding schools.

Loretta Trujillo, a veteran educator who worked with Native youth in New Mexico during the pandemic, saw how many Native teens took jobs with long hours to help their families stay housed and fed. Often that got misinterpreted to mean “that they didn’t care” about school. That’s still happening now, she said.

“It’s really important to be sensitive to that history of under-serving that has happened and the instability that Native families are often entangled in,” said Trujillo, who now leads Transform Education New Mexico, a coalition working to implement remedies for the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, which led to a court ruling that the state had shortchanged Native students in their education. “Those are reflections of systems that have not served them. It’s not a reflection of apathy or lack of valuing education.”

Algodones Elementary School second grade teacher Lori Spina takes a photo of her class for her newsletter.

Schools invest in family engagement, affirm student identity

New Mexico saw the nation’s biggest jump in chronic absenteeism during the pandemic, as well as the largest increase in absenteeism among Native students in the 34 states with sufficient data.

State education officials say bringing those rates down is a top priority. Over the last two years, state lawmakers set aside $10 million to help 14 school districts with some of the greatest attendance challenges, several of which serve large Native student populations. This year, that includes an extra $50,000 for Bernalillo.

Several districts are using the money to reach out to families more often and hire a staffer who can connect families with resources to address attendance barriers. The state is offering more training on family engagement, too.

Social worker Mary Schmauss, left, and attendance clerk Katrice Grant discuss truancy cases they need to tackle at Algodones Elementary School.

“It’s going back to the basics,” said Candice Castillo, the deputy secretary for New Mexico’s education department who oversees attendance. “What a lot of the districts are realizing is that post-COVID, that engagement of the caring adult in the lives of our students, it’s even more crucial.”

The Pueblo communities around Bernalillo were hit hard by COVID, with devastating impacts on elders. Some children lost more than one family member, Deuel said, and are still grieving.

At Algodones Elementary School, excused absences for sick days are still piling up — in some cases, Principal Rosangela Montoya suspects, students may feel queasy with nerves or anxiety about falling behind academically. Last school year, two-thirds of the school’s students were chronically absent, meaning they’d missed 10% or more of the school year.

Staff and tribal liaisons have been analyzing every absence and emphasizing connections with parents. By 10 a.m., telephone calls go out to the homes of absent students. Next steps include in-person meetings with those students’ parents.

“There’s illness, there’s trauma,” Montoya said. “A lot of our grandparents are the ones raising the children so that the parents can be working.”

About 95% of Algodones’ students are Native American, and the school strives to affirm their identity. It doesn’t open on four days set aside for Native American ceremonial gatherings, and students are excused for absences on other cultural days as designated by the nearby pueblos.

The district sends out a survey so families can offer input on the school calendar — a strategy state education officials say is a model for engaging with Native families.

For Jennifer Tenorio, it makes a difference that the school offers classes in the family’s native language of Keres. Tenorio said her two oldest children, now in their 20s, were discouraged from speaking Keres in Head Start, a federal early education program, and they struggled academically.

“In Algodones, I saw a big difference to where the teachers were really there for the students,” Tenorio said. Her 8-year-old son, Cameron, feels inspired at school and likes math. “He tells me every day what he learns.”

Algodones Elementary School Principal Rosangela Montoya waves goodbye to parents as students arrive at school.

Bernalillo’s attendance has improved. The school district’s chronic absenteeism rate dropped 18 percentage points to 60% last school year. For Native students, the rate fell 16 points to 66%. There’s more work to do, but district leaders are highlighting that progress at school events and thanking families for their hard work.

“Not always focusing on the negative” matters, said Deuel, the district administrator, who saw families cheer their elementary school’s attendance improvements at a recent harvest festival.

On-site health, trauma care helps bring students back

Still, in some states, absenteeism among Native students has continued to worsen, even while improving slightly for other students.

That’s the case in Arizona, where chronic absenteeism for Native students rose from 22% the year before the pandemic began to 45% in 2022-2023.

Nearly all students in the state’s San Carlos Unified School District, where 76% of students were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, are Native. And more than half of families have incomes below the federal poverty level. Many students come from homes that deal with alcoholism and drug abuse, Superintendent Deborah Dennison said.

The district recently introduced care centers that partner with hospitals, dentists, and food banks to help students at multiple schools. The work is guided by cultural success coaches — school employees who help families address the kind of challenges that keep students from coming to school.

Last school year, the chronic absenteeism rate in the district fell from 76% to 59% — an improvement Dennison attributes partly to efforts to address their communities’ needs. Changing the perception of school and what it can offer, Dennison said, boosts both attendance and morale, especially for older students.

Velma Kitcheyan, a third grade teacher at Rice Intermediate School in San Carlos, Arizona, instructs her students.

“All these connections with the community and the tribe are what’s making a difference for us and making the school a system that fits them rather than something that has been forced upon them, like it has been for over a century of education in Indian Country,” said Dennison, a member of the Navajo Nation.

That’s been true for 10-year-old Tommy Betom, who missed 40 days of school last year, but is on track for better attendance this year.

A teacher and a truancy officer reached out to Tommy’s family to work on his attendance — he often came home from school saying the teacher was picking on him and other kids were making fun of his clothes — while his grandmother, Ethel Marie Betom, urged him to choose his friends carefully and stressed how important school was to his future.

Betom, an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache tribe who is one of Tommy’s caregivers, also tells him how he has advantages as a child that she lacked: “You have running water in the house, bathrooms, and a running car.”

Meanwhile, Lillian Curtis has been impressed by the student activities on family night at Rice Intermediate School. Her 10-year-old granddaughter, Brylee Lupe, missed 10 days of school by mid-October last year, but had missed just two days by the same time this year. Brylee seems “much more excited” for school, her grandmother noticed.

“The kids always want to go — they are anxious to go to school now,” said Curtis, an enrolled member of the San Carlos tribe who cares for her grandchildren. It also helped to emphasize to Brylee that school is a ticket to self-sufficiency. “You’ve got to do it on your own. You got to make something of yourself.”

In New Mexico, KatieAnn Juanico, the assistant secretary for Indian education, has seen how tribes have stepped in to help with attendance efforts, too. Some have used state grants to take kids on field trips as attendance incentives. Some tribal leaders are making home visits to check on students who miss school.

“We have high respect for our traditional tribal leaders,” said Juanico, who is an enrolled tribal member of the Pueblo of Acoma. So it would be a big motivator “if one showed up at my home wondering where I was, coming from a perspective of: ‘We want to make sure you’re safe and healthy because you’re supposed to be in school.’”

Alia Wong of The Associated Press and Felix Clary of ICT contributed to this report.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Special education staffing shortages put students’ futures at risk. How to solve that is tricky.

2024-11-20T00:31:39+00:00

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Every year, more special education teachers quit than graduate from the nation’s teacher preparation programs, even as the number of students diagnosed with disabilities keeps rising.

Without enough qualified teachers and therapists, students don’t always get the help they need to be successful in school. Shortages also contribute to serious situations where kids are locked in small rooms, teachers physically hold down students, or children disrupt their classmates’ learning because they haven’t learned how to regulate their own behavior.

There was broad agreement that special education staffing shortages are a dire problem at a public briefing held by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday. But there were widely divergent ideas about how to solve the issue and what role the federal government should play.

Some educators and experts said the solution is for the federal government to fulfill its decades-old pledge to cover more of the costs of special education. In their eyes, the Education Department should be flooding the special educator pipeline and offering training to all teachers to better support students with disabilities.

Others said it’s about incentivizing the job, and that special education teachers should be paid more than their colleagues and offered retention bonuses. Still others said that states should ease licensing rules and expand private school voucher programs to give desperate families more options.

The briefing, meant to inform the president and Congress, was held as President-elect Trump prepares to start his second term in office. Trump has vowed to expand school choice and dramatically scale back the federal role in education — a move panelists said could affect students with disabilities a lot or a little, depending on how the plan is executed.

The briefing did not include testimony from the U.S. Department of Education, which Trump has said he would abolish. Stephen Gilchrist, the Republican Trump-appointed commissioner who called for the briefing, said the department’s absence was “unconscionable.” An Education Department spokesperson said scheduling conflicts prevented the agency from being there in person, but it would send written responses.

The debate comes as the number of students with disabilities is growing. Some 7.5 million students required special education services as of the 2022-23 school year, the latest federal data shows, or around 15% of students. That was up from 7.1 million or 14% of students in the 2018-19 school year, just before the pandemic hit.

It’s unclear if the rise is due to schools getting better at identifying students with disabilities or if more children have needs now. Many young children missed early intervention and early special education services during the pandemic, and many educators say they are seeing higher behavioral needs and wider academic gaps in their classrooms.

“Students are arriving in our classrooms with a high level of dysregulation, which is displayed through their fight, flight, or freeze responses,” Tiffany Anderson, the superintendent of Topeka, Kansas’ public schools, wrote in her statement. “Students are also displaying more physically aggressive behavior.”

All of that has trickle-down effects. When kids disengage or act out, schools often remove them from class, said Dan Stewart, the managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network. That could be a suspension or something more informal, like cutting a child’s day short. Then the burden of providing educational support falls on families, said Ariel Simms, the president of Disability Belongs, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of people with disabilities.

“Parents and caregivers have had to step in to fill gaps in areas like tutoring, therapy, and learning accommodations, resulting in heightened stress and financial strain,” Simms told the commission in her statement.

Why special education teachers are in short supply

There are many reasons for the shortages. While the number of special education teachers has risen over the past two decades, the demand still outpaces the supply, writes Chad Aldeman, who researches teacher labor markets. Around 16,000 more special education teachers leave public schools each year than teacher prep programs train to replace them.

Special education teachers are more likely to change jobs or quit teaching than their general education colleagues. On top of that, many districts struggle to hire and keep paraprofessionals, whose crucial but low-paid work helps teachers meet the needs of students with disabilities. All of that increases workloads and contributes to burnout.

To get by, many schools increase class sizes or rely on substitutes and emergency credentialed teachers who often lack the proper training to work with students with disabilities.

“We had to hire virtual teachers and those on special visas, which complicated matters for our special needs students who were already facing academic and social challenges,” Karen Lockerman, a special education teacher in rural South Carolina, told the commission of how her district handled pandemic staffing shortages. “Language barriers and virtual instruction added further difficulties to their learning.”

Some say more funding; others want voucher expansion

To some advocates, the solution is obvious: The federal government needs to pay a bigger share of schools’ special education costs. Back in 1975, when federal lawmakers passed what would become the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, they said the government would cover 40%.

But “actual federal funding for IDEA has never come close to that and is usually well below half of this ‘full funding’ amount,” Jessica Levin, the litigation director at the nonprofit Education Law Center, told the commission. Without adequate funding, Levin said, “it is impossible to meet the educational needs and legal rights of students with disabilities, including ensuring there are sufficient numbers of qualified teachers.”

Anderson said that underfunding means her district has to pull money from the general education budget to cover the costs of educating kids with disabilities. Kansas gave schools an extra $75 million to pay for special education this year, but there aren’t any plans to keep that up as of now. Federal pandemic aid that helped is about to expire.

The federal government and states also could do more to knock down financial barriers to becoming a special education teacher, said Julian Vasquez Heilig, the director of the Network for Public Education, an advocacy group, by offering more scholarships, stipends, and loan forgiveness. Investing in the expansion of “grow your own” initiatives, which often produce too few teachers to change overall staffing levels, could also help.

Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the federal government could elevate examples of states like Indiana, which created a program that pays for licensed teachers to go back to school to get their special education license and condenses their coursework. The pandemic aid-backed program has produced over 600 licensed special education teachers since 2021 and has become a go-to strategy for some districts to fill vacancies.

In Topeka, Anderson has tried recruiting paraprofessionals, career changers, and international teachers. Through a state program, parents who hadn’t gone to college or worked in a classroom before got on-the-job training from experienced teachers. Still, all of that effort hasn’t really made a dent.

“These programs have given us additional alternative pathways; however, the shortage is so significant, it has not eliminated the need and the crisis school districts like Topeka Public Schools continue to face,” Anderson told the commission.

Butcher, of the Heritage Foundation, also floated another idea: changing federal law so that families can take the portion of IDEA funding that would normally go to their child at a public school and use it however they see fit — an idea that’s similar to creating a national voucher program for students with disabilities.

“By making IDEA ‘portable,’ families could purchase services from education therapists, private school tuition, or other education products that fit their child’s needs,” Butcher told the commission in his statement. “This policy would help alleviate the pressure on public school officials to find special education personnel while also giving families private education choices when frustrating legal battles with school districts prevent students from receiving the services they require.”

Many advocates for students with disabilities worry such an idea would strip kids of their right to a free and appropriate education, as families typically have to waive that right to participate in a private school voucher program at the state level.

The idea would require action by Congress and buy-in from Trump. Still, some are taking Butcher’s proposal seriously, as the Heritage Foundation published Project 2025, a policy playbook written by several former Trump White House officials. That plan calls for turning most funding for special education into block grants that states would control.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Remote learning hurt high school grad rates. Ditching exit exams helped, new research finds

2024-11-19T11:01:00+00:00

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Until now, the story of how COVID affected who got their high school diploma went something like this: Graduation rates dipped a little for the class of 2021, but recovered the following year. The pandemic contributed to a small, but notable departure from a decade of upward progress.

But a new report paints a more complicated picture. Where a student lived and what policies their school followed during the pandemic affected how likely they were to graduate from high school.

When states that normally required a high school exit exam waived that requirement, graduation rates went up. When students spent a greater share of time learning remotely or in a hybrid setup, graduation rates fell. And the longer a district kept school buildings closed in 2021 and 2022, the less likely their students were to graduate on time.

Those are among the findings of a report released Tuesday by a team of researchers from The GRAD Partnership, an initiative led by nine education organizations including the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and the nonprofit American Institutes for Research.

The report also cautions that the pandemic’s full effects on high school graduation likely haven’t been felt yet, as the children who struggled in middle and elementary school are still working their way toward a diploma. High rates of absenteeism that have persisted since the pandemic represent another “wild card” that could affect future high school graduation rates, researchers write.

“Through the class of ‘28, I think we’ll still be seeing these impacts on kids who were in fifth to eighth grade during the pandemic,” said Bob Balfanz, a Johns Hopkins education professor and an author of the new report. Members of the class of 2028 were in fourth grade in March 2020 and are currently high school freshmen.

Balfanz worries about this year’s senior class, who spent much of middle school learning remotely, and then “crashed” on a key national math test in eighth grade.

Taken together, Balfanz said, that points to the need for high schools to step up progress monitoring over the next few years, both for academic coursework and work-based learning.

Balfanz said schools need to be asking: “Who has a pathway, who doesn’t?”

More time in remote learning lowered grad rates

Graduation rate trends varied a lot across the U.S. and within the same state.

The nearly 7,000 school districts included in the analysis represent more than half of the 13,000 school districts in the country. Of those, around a third ended up with graduation rates that were worse in 2022 than in 2019, while around a third ended up with better ones. Just over a third of districts didn’t see much change.

Balfanz said that is likely a reflection of how the pandemic affected communities in very different ways. Some students lost loved ones or lived in a community where many parents lost their jobs. Some high schoolers took on jobs or cared for siblings, while others did not.

Other factors may have pushed graduation rates up, the report notes. Some states and districts waived certain high school graduation requirements, while some schools adopted more lenient grading policies and were flexible on deadlines.

That means the kinds of support kids need now will vary a lot by place, too.

“There’s not going to be some sweeping national solution,” Balfanz said.

Still, there are some steps schools can take based on the report. The data showed that the last few months of ninth grade and of senior year can be very important for students to stay on track with credits and graduate on time, though those tend to be times when schools ease up on advising. Schools could try layering on extra support in the final quarter of the year.

Another suggestion, Balfanz said, is to try some of the strategies that have been effective in raising graduation rates in the past, such as creating small groups of freshmen who meet regularly with a caring adult to get guidance and support, sometimes known as a ninth grade academy. Schools could consider launching 10th grade academies, too.

And while the policies that affected high school graduation rates stemmed from the emergency response to the pandemic, Balfanz says there are still lessons that can be learned from how they played out.

When districts only taught remotely during the 2020-21 school year, they saw a 0.8 percentage point dip in their graduation rate, compared with districts that taught fully in person, researchers found. Districts that used a hybrid model had a high school graduation rate that was 0.4 percentage points lower than districts that taught fully in person. Researchers estimate that nearly 12,000 fewer students graduated on time in 2021 due to remote and hybrid instruction — around 3% of all students who didn’t graduate on time that year.

Balfanz sees this as yet another piece of evidence that while virtual learning can work for some high schoolers, it’s not a mass solution and should be deployed with caution, especially for struggling students, like those who’ve been suspended from school.

Earlier research found that districts that stayed remote during the 2020-21 school year had lower test scores, especially in elementary and middle school math.

Higher rates of hybrid teaching in 2021 continued to depress high school graduation rates in 2022, but graduation rates actually went up in 2022 among districts that taught fully remotely the year before.

This finding deserves additional research, the report states, but it’s possible that districts that taught mostly remotely during the 2020-21 school year invested more the following year in supporting students and helping them catch up on missed credits. It’s also possible, researchers wrote, that students who were later to shift away from fully remote instruction experienced a surge of engagement when they were finally back in person.

Waiving exit exams raised graduation rates

When a dozen states waived high school exit exams during the pandemic, district graduation rates were about 0.7 percentage points higher than they otherwise would have been. Researchers estimated that removing the exit exam requirement helped an additional 21,000 students graduate from high school from 2020 to 2022.

The findings come as several states are reevaluating what should be required of students to get a high school diploma and as several states are getting rid of the exit exam requirement.

New York state, for example, recently announced it would no longer require students to pass the Regents exam to graduate, starting with the 2027-28 school year, while Massachusetts voters decided earlier this month that high schoolers should no longer have to pass a standardized test to get a diploma.

Balfanz says the exit exam data point is another indicator that high schools need better information about what skills and knowledge will be most helpful to students later in life. Some states track how students do after graduation, and those data systems could provide valuable information to change what high schools require of students.

“Let’s use those more to see what about the high school experience really matters,” he said, “and use that to shape what we’re asking of kids.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump plan to ax the Education Department might affect kids with disabilities a lot — or a little

2024-11-15T21:11:54+00:00

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A federal hearing about special education teacher shortages turned into a debate about how the potential elimination of the U.S. Department of Education would affect students with disabilities.

The exchange, which occurred Friday during a public briefing of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, speaks to how Donald Trump’s election is already shaping education policy discussions amid widespread uncertainty about how his proposals could play out.

Trump vowed on the campaign trail that he would dismantle the federal Education Department and hand more control over education to the states. The federal law that guarantees students with disabilities a right to a free and appropriate public education dates back to 1975, before the Education Department existed as a standalone entity. That law would remain on the books even if the department were disbanded, but it’s less clear how funding would change or who would be responsible for protecting students’ rights.

Eliminating a federal department would require an act of Congress. Trump has not spelled out exactly how special education funding or administration would change if that happens, but some have made suggestions.

Project 2025, a political playbook written by former Trump White House officials, for example, calls for turning most federal funding for special education into “no-strings” grants for school districts distributed by another agency altogether: the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic with no education experience, to lead that agency.

Project 2025 also calls for moving the Office for Civil Rights and any “assets” in the federal special education office that work on discrimination to the Department of Justice. There, civil rights enforcement would be done through lawsuits, not investigations, as they’re done now in the Education Department.

At the briefing, Commissioner Mondaire Jones, a Democrat and former congressman, asked a panel of experts whether eliminating the Education Department would have an effect on students with disabilities and the shortage of educators to teach them.

Several panelists said the federal government still needs to fund education, even if the Education Department no longer exists.

Eric Hanushek, a prominent education researcher of school funding and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said he thought the proposal was more of a “political statement about how much we want Washington to be intruding in state education policy,” and that it wouldn’t actually change much for students with disabilities.

It would still be Congress’ job to decide how much to spend on fulfilling the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Hanushek said, even if funding were disbursed through another agency, like a revamped Health and Human Services Department.

“I don’t think it has any obvious impacts on IDEA funding,” Hanushek said. “I personally think that the federal government should have a larger responsibility in special education funding.”

But he cautioned that students with disabilities could get less immediate attention without an education secretary calling attention to their needs from the bully pulpit. Eliminating the department and moving its work elsewhere could also jeopardize data collection and research about students with disabilities, Hanushek said.

William Trachman, the general counsel at the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm that’s suing the Biden administration over its Title IX rules, said the answer would depend on what replaces the Education Department.

“It is not going to happen that there is no federal role in special education whatsoever,” he said. Whether the Department of Justice takes over civil rights enforcement, whether special education moves to HHS, or whether states get block grants to use for special education, “a lot of the impact of what happens is going to be revealed through those details.”

Others said eliminating the Education Department would have serious consequences for students with disabilities.

Tuan Nguyen, an associate professor at the University of Missouri who studies teacher labor markets, said he worried that without a federal Education Department putting pressure on states to require certain standards for teaching, who ends up working with students with disabilities would be a “free-for-all.”

“Years of evidence have shown that when states don’t have a mandate to make sure that our teachers are licensed and qualified, they’ll put anybody they can in the classroom,” Nguyen said.

Amanda Levin Mazin, a senior lecturer at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said she worried that without an Education Department, there would be cuts to incentives that help people enter the special education teaching profession. The Education Department has the discretion to award a variety of grants to school districts, universities, and others to support teacher recruitment and pipeline development.

Jessica Levin, the litigation director of the Education Law Center, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of students with disabilities, said she worried that eliminating the department would hurt the enforcement of students’ civil rights. Historically, most federal civil rights complaints in education are related to a student’s disability.

“The Department of Education and the experts within it play a crucial role in enforcing those civil rights for students with disabilities across the country,” she said. “This is an incredibly dangerous proposal, both on a practical and symbolic level.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump’s deportation plan could separate millions of families, leaving schools to pick up the pieces

2024-11-15T21:02:12+00:00

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Editor’s Note: This story was reported and published before the presidential election. It has been updated to reflect that Donald Trump won a second term.

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When immigration agents raided chicken processing plants in central Mississippi in 2019, they arrested nearly 700 undocumented workers — many of them parents of children enrolled in local schools.

Teens got frantic texts to leave class and find their younger siblings. Unfamiliar faces whose names weren’t on the pick-up list showed up to take children home. School staff scrambled to make sure no child went home to an empty house, while the owner of a local gym threw together a temporary shelter for kids with nowhere else to go.

In the Scott County School District, a quarter of the district’s Latino students, around 150 children, were absent from school the next day. When dozens of kids continued to miss school, staff packed onto school buses and went door to door with food, trying to reassure families that it was safe for their children to return. Academics were on hold for weeks, said Tony McGee, the district’s superintendent at the time.

“We went into kind of a Mom and Dad mode and just cared for kids,” McGee said. While some children bounced back quickly, others were shaken for months. “You could tell there was still some worry on kids’ hearts.”

After workplace raids in Mississippi, some school-age children whose parents were arrested were taken to a local gym that served as an emergency shelter.

Massive workplace raids have occurred in the past, with enforcement also targeting employers in an effort to deter unauthorized immigration. If President-elect Donald Trump enacts the hardline immigration policies he campaigned on, what happened in Mississippi could become a much more common occurrence affecting millions of children and their schools.

Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, tapping every resource at his disposal from local police to the National Guard and the military. Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, have repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether they would deport the parents of U.S. citizen children.

But any such plan inevitably would sweep up parents of school-age children, leaving educators with the responsibility of providing food, clothing, counseling, and more to affected students. Educators who have been through it before say schools that serve immigrant communities should prepare now. It’s estimated some 4.4 million U.S.-born children have at least one undocumented parent.

On top of that, it’s unclear if Trump would seek to undermine the “sanctuary school” policies that some districts enacted during his last presidency in an attempt to protect immigrant students and their families on school grounds.

Trump has shown willingness to target immigrant children

Trump frequently aims his rhetoric and policy proposals at the children of immigrants.

Last year, he said he would seek to end automatic citizenship rights for children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, and he has defended his policy that separated immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. He has not ruled out deporting women and children as part of his mass deportation plan.

“We’re gonna look at it very closely,” he said in an interview earlier this fall, even as he acknowledged that images of families being loaded on buses would make it “a lot harder.”

Both Trump and Vance have characterized immigrant children as being burdens on schools who are overcrowding classrooms and taxing teachers with their language needs. Top aides to Trump tried for months during his first administration to give states the power to block undocumented children from attending public school, Bloomberg News reported, and an influential conservative think tank is seeking to revive that idea if Trump wins a second term.

RELATED: Think tank with ties to Trump lays out plan to deny free education to undocumented students

Immigrant rights advocates worry that Trump would seek to end a decades-old federal policy that has treated schools as “sensitive” or “protected” areas where immigration agents are not supposed to surveil families or make arrests, except in extraordinary circumstances, so as not to deter children from going to school.

“Enforcement actions undertaken in these locations have a ripple effect,” said Heidi Altman, the director of federal advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. “It’s very frightening for communities when we think about the possibility of a Trump administration, both in terms of enforcement at and near protected areas, like schools, but also the impact on schools and access to education.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to questions sent in October about whether he would seek to carry out immigration enforcement activities at or near schools as part of his mass deportation plan. But Project 2025, a policy playbook written by several former Trump White House officials, calls for rescinding any memos that identify “sensitive zones” where immigration action should be limited.

And even when immigration enforcement happens off campus, it can still have far-reaching effects on children and schools.

Kheri Martinez was just 13 when her mother was swept up in the 2019 Mississippi raids. She was one of around 1,000 children whose parents were arrested that day. A family friend picked Martinez up early from school, and she later learned from her dad — who was working out of state on a construction job — that her mother had been detained.

The seventh grader bottled up her own fears and told her two little sisters, who were a toddler and early elementary schooler at the time, that their mom was working overtime. For dinner, they ate pizza dropped off by worried family friends. That night, Martinez climbed into her parents’ bed with her sisters, hoping the blankets that smelled like their mom would comfort her.

“Even though I don’t know if Mom is going to come home today,” she told herself, “at least I’d have something closer to me, I’ll feel like she’s here.”

Her mom came home crying at 4 in the morning — immigration officials had released some parents of small children on humanitarian grounds while their cases proceeded — and Martinez finally felt like she could breathe.

At school the next day, there were whispers that the school would be targeted for violence and that the government was going to come back and take kids away. It felt like everyone at school was “on alert.”

“The Hispanic kids, we were just kind of out of it,” Martinez said. “We weren’t us for a little bit.”

Immigration raids take heavy emotional toll on kids

What Martinez experienced is not uncommon among children whose parents have been caught up in immigration raids. Multiple studies have documented the sweeping psychological, emotional, and financial toll that such operations have on children and their families.

A local pastor and other volunteers gathered food and donated items to distribute to families affected by the immigration raids in Mississippi in 2019.

Researchers from the nonprofit Center for Law and Social Policy found that the Mississippi raids were especially traumatic for the children whose schools were located within sight of a poultry plant. Many saw their parents handcuffed and shoved into white vans on their way home from school, prompting screams and uncontrollable crying.

Children “continued to suffer emotionally” for weeks and months, the research team wrote, and even kids who’d been reunited with their parents showed signs of post-traumatic stress and separation anxiety. Some kindergartners started wetting the bed again, and toddlers regressed in their speech. It was common for kids to come home from school, drop their backpacks, and spend the rest of the day sleeping. Older kids often took on more housework, child care, and paying jobs so they could contribute to their households.

Similarly, researchers for The Urban Institute documented how earlier immigration raids in three states affected some 500 children whose parents were arrested.

Those children were most likely to experience emotional distress, but fear also spread to children who worried their parents would be “taken” next. Story time often turned to talk of the raids and got emotional, teachers said. Some kids internalized their parents’ disappearance as an abandonment. Some children ate less and lost weight, while others started acting out or had trouble sleeping.

“Some parents said that, months after the raids, their children still cried in the morning when getting dropped off at school or day care, something that they rarely used to do,” the report found. “Children were said to obsess over whether their parents were going to pick them up from school.”

RELATED: Many migrant students need mental health support. Here’s why this program is a go-to for schools.

With breadwinners in detention, many families fell behind on rent. Three-quarters of the parents said they struggled to buy enough food after the raids. Housing instability forced some kids to change schools multiple times. The experience “sapped the attention of some children and affected their academic performance,” researchers found.

For Martinez, it took a year for school to feel normal again. She often felt like she was on edge, “on the lookout” for another raid.

“It hurt me for a while,” Martinez said.

How schools and families can offer support to kids

School leaders say it’s difficult to plan for an immigration raid. Agents usually do not give schools any prior warning. But schools that serve immigrant communities can take certain steps in advance.

“We practice for fire drills and tornado drills, bus evacuations, and sad to say nowadays we practice for active shooters. There’s not many drills for ICE raids,” McGee, the former Scott County superintendent, said. When “families are separated, and you’re responsible for how do these kids get home and who takes care of them, it helps to have a little insight that: Hey, you need to be prepared.”

School staff who’ve experienced raids in their communities say it’s especially important to develop an emergency protocol for how children should be signed out at school if their approved caretaker is not available to pick them up. Identifying a potential temporary shelter for students — whether at a school, a local church, or a community center — is also helpful.

McGee and his team met daily with the principals of schools where many children were affected by the raids to ask how teachers and students were doing. The district also provided materials to help teachers talk about the raids in class and explain to kids who weren’t affected how their classmates may be feeling.

“We didn’t get into the political struggle of why this happened, or why that happened, should it happen, should it not happen?” McGee said. “Our job is to care for kids.”

For Martinez, the care two teachers showed her was especially helpful. They each pulled her aside to talk about what happened, and told her to let them know if she needed more time to complete assignments.

“I was very appreciative of that,” Martinez said. “It made me feel like: ‘Oh, they understood.’”

Her family also came up with a plan for exactly what they would do and where they would go if another immigration raid happened, which helped to ease some of the anxiety. Martinez knows, for example, that if her family has to sell their belongings and move back to Mexico that she would stay in the U.S. to finish her college degree.

Gabriela Uribe Mejia with her daughter, Kheri Martinez. Martinez was just 13 when her mom was detained during a mass immigration raid in Mississippi in 2019.

“You’re going to carry something that is not yours, but we don’t have any option,” Gabriela Uribe Mejia said she told her daughter. “She said: ‘Don’t worry, I understand, I know what to do.’ But she’s a young girl.”

Still, immigrant rights advocates worry about the long-term effects on children and families.

Lorena Quiroz, who directs the Mississippi-based Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, was among the community organizers who went door to door asking families if they needed food, legal assistance, or other support in the wake of the Mississippi raids.

Quiroz knows affected families who were torn apart by drinking and fighting, and teens who dropped out of school. Mothers still feel ashamed of the weeks they spent wearing an ankle monitor, visible for everyone to see under their traditional Maya skirts. Adults still tear up when they drive past the poultry plants.

People talk about it “like it’s yesterday,” Quiroz said. “Imagine that happening everywhere.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Education elections we’re watching

2024-11-06T16:30:14+00:00

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The decisions voters made Tuesday will set the course of education policy for the next four years and perhaps for far longer.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, has won a second term. He has pledged to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, cut funding for “woke” schools, roll back new protections for LGBTQ students, and expand school choice. Trump also has pledged to carry out a massive deportation operation that could have significant impacts on schools serving large immigrant communities.

TELL CHALKBEAT: Trump will be the next president. What do you want him to know about your school community?

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, cast herself as the defender of public education. One of her first stops after she announced her candidacy was at the convention of the American Federation of Teachers. She selected a former teacher, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as her running mate.

She focused her campaign on policies such as affordable child care and an expanded child tax credit that could help alleviate child poverty and take some of the burden off K-12 schools. She also promised to expand apprenticeships and make college more affordable.

Political observers have said either candidate’s education agenda — including who ends up serving as education secretary — would be shaped by who controls Congress. Republicans are projected to take control of the U.S. Senate, while control of the House has not been settled.

Trump has won a second term. Here's what it means for education.

As always, state and local elections could have a more immediate impact on K-12 education. Voters also chose school board members in hundreds of districts, including in Chicago as part of a transition away from mayoral control. They also weighed in on state superintendents of education, school choice ballot measures, and the meaning of a high school diploma.

We’ll have much more on what Trump’s election means for schools and children. For now, here are some of the education races we have been watching around the country.

An extremist Republican loses bid for top education post in North Carolina

In the high-profile contest for North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction, Democrat Mo Green beat Republican Michele Morrow.

Morrow’s many controversial statements attracted national attention to the race. She participated in the march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and accused some teachers of being “groomers.” She homeschooled her children for part of their education and referred to public schools as “indoctrination centers” on the campaign trail. Morrow also called for the execution of prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama — she later called it a joke.

Green is the former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, one of the largest districts in North Carolina, who also held leadership roles in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. He described the race as a fight for the “soul of public education,” and said Morrow’s extremist rhetoric shouldn’t be normalized.

In North Dakota, incumbent state superintendent Kirsten Baesler handily beat Jason Heitkamp, a former state senator, to secure a fourth term. The race is nonpartisan, but both candidates are Republicans.

Notably, Baesler did not win the support of her state’s Republican party in the primary. The party instead backed a home schooling proponent who wanted to put the Ten Commandments in public schools, but that candidate ultimately didn’t get enough votes to advance.

Baesler has said the state’s Republican delegation is out of touch on education and overly focused on ideological issues that don’t have much effect on classroom instruction.

In Montana, Republican Susie Hedalen will succeed outgoing Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, who’s hit her eight-year term limit. She bested Democrat Shannon O’Brien, a state senator who advised former Gov. Steve Bullock on education policy

Hedalen is the vice chair of the state’s board of education and heads Montana’s Townsend School District. She formerly served as a deputy under Arntzen, who faced criticism for how her office oversaw spending and implemented education laws.

In Florida, school board elections remain non-partisan

A proposal to require school board elections to become partisan did not meet the 60% threshold it needed to amend Florida’s constitution, despite getting the support of 55% of voters. The proposed amendment would have mandated school board candidates to have their political party listed by their name on the general election ballot.

According to Ballotpedia, more than 90% of school boards are elected without any party labels attached to candidates. In recent years, however, more states and school districts have discussed moving to a partisan election system. Supporters argue that the new system will provide more transparency regarding the candidates’ political positions, while those opposed to it say it could bring about more polarization and political conflict.

Florida held partisan school board elections before a major electoral reform in 2000.

Voters reject school choice at the ballot

Vouchers and educational savings accounts have gained momentum in legislatures across the country, but voters in three states appear wary of spending public dollars on private schools.

Voters in Colorado were rejecting an effort to enshrine the right to school choice in the state constitution. The ballot measure would not have created or funded a voucher program. Still, opponents feared it would open the door to vouchers in this Democratic-dominated state.

Colorado has a robust charter sector, but Democratic legislators have blocked efforts to introduce private school choice or give public money to home schooling families. In unofficial returns, more than half of voters said no. The constitutional amendment would have needed at least 55% of the vote to pass.

In Kentucky, voters soundly rejected a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would have allowed public funding for students in non-public institutions. The proposed amendment proposal was placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers to clear the way for a voucher program. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and the state teachers union opposed the amendment.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate and a supporter of school choice measures, won the state by a large margin, showing that a large number of Republican voters rejected one of his main education policy proposals.

In Nebraska, voters repealed a new law that would have directed $10 million of public money toward private school vouchers. The law established a partnership between the state and the nonprofit Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska, directing public money to fund scholarships provided by the organization to low-income students.

The state legislature approved the law in April, with strong support from conservative politicians. Teachers unions opposed the scholarship program and pushed for a repeal to appear on the ballot. Their main argument is that the program would take away funding from public institutions.

The voucher repeal passed by a wide margin. Voucher proponents vowed to keep fighting.

Massachusetts votes to get rid of high school exit exam requirement

In yet another sign of the changing attitudes around what it should take to graduate from high school, Massachusetts residents voted solidly in favor of ditching the state’s required exit exam.

Right now, Massachusetts students have to pass a 10th grade math, science, and English test to get their diploma. Going forward, students will instead have to show they’ve mastered state standards in those subjects by completing certain coursework. School districts will make that call, likely with the state board of education weighing in on what it takes to demonstrate mastery.

The state’s largest teachers union led the campaign to repeal the exit exam requirement, arguing it disadvantages students with disabilities, students learning English, and students from low-income families. Graduation exams generally don’t increase academic achievement, research has found, and they can increase high school dropout rates.

Massachusetts’ governor and secretary of education both opposed getting rid of the test as a graduation requirement, saying the exams help set a uniform and high standard.

Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, who lives in Massachusetts, said getting rid of the test would be a “disaster” and lead to some districts setting a low bar with the excuse that children who grow up in poverty just can’t do well in school.

“We don’t like the story that the data tells us,” she said, “that we’re not doing an adequate job preparing our children for adulthood.”

As of last school year, Massachusetts was one of only eight states that still required high schoolers to pass an exit exam to graduate. Several states have ditched the requirement in recent years, and others are moving in that direction. New York officials, for example, also proposed getting rid of the requirement that students pass the state’s Regents exams to graduate as part of a broader diploma overhaul.

Chicago elects first school board members

Chicago voters appear likely to elect a politically mixed school board as the nation’s fourth-largest school district begins a transition away from mayoral control. Unofficial results showed four teachers union-backed candidates, three pro-school choice candidates, and three independent candidates either winning or holding leads.

The elected board members will serve alongside mayoral appointees until 2026, when all members will be chosen by the voters.

The election comes at a time of political turmoil, as Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, has tried to assert his authority and stave off cuts to schools with a controversial plan to use loans to cover pension obligations.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez (third from left) and Mayor Brandon Johnson (far right) ring bells with students at Chalmers Elementary School on the first day of the 2024-2025 school year. Johnson has pressured Martinez to resign, and the next school board could decide whether he continues to lead the district.

The appointed members of the board recently resigned en masse, and some of their replacements may be replaced again once the election results are clear. That means that an entirely new board with no experienced members will be charged with tackling major challenges, including a looming budget deficit, negotiations for a new teachers contract, the future of school choice, and the district’s relationship with the city.

Both the Chicago Teachers Union and pro-school choice groups have spent heavily in the race in an effort to influence the outcome.

Union-backed candidates leading in Los Angeles

Supporters of charter schools had hoped to pick up at least one seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District board as that body faces a major leadership transition. But in early returns, candidates backed by the teachers union were ahead, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Long-serving members of the board President Jackie Goldberg and George McKenna are retiring. Members backed by the teachers union took control in 2022. Since then, charter schools have faced less favorable policies while grappling with problems like declining enrollment.

Los Angeles is the nation’s second-largest school district and the largest governed by an elected school board. Technically there are four open seats on the seven-member board, but one of the races was decided in March when incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin, a supporter of charter schools, won her primary with more than 50% of the vote.

The most watched race is in District 3, where Dan Chang, a teacher and charter supporter, tried to unseat incumbent Scott Schmerelson, who had the backing of the teachers union.

Schmerelson, who has served two terms on the school board, was favored to win the race and was ahead in initial returns. Schmerelson has been a reliable vote for more charter oversight.

Chang had said that if he were successful, he would repeal a controversial policy that limits charter schools’ ability to use district buildings. Sharing space has been critical to charter school growth not only in Los Angeles but in other cities as well.

In another race, a candidate backed by the teachers union had a strong lead over one backed by the support staff union. In the final open seat, Sherlett Hendy Newbill could bring a more independent voice. The teachers union had backed her primary opponent before antisemitic social media posts effectively ended his candidacy, and she received very little financial support from the union.

Elsewhere in California, candidates backed by conservative parents’ rights groups and teachers unions are battling for control of school boards in elections that focus more on control over curriculum and the erosion of policies to protect racial equity and LGBTQ rights.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Wellington Soares is Chalkbeat’s national education reporting intern based in New York City. Contact Wellington at wsoares@chalkbeat.org.

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El plan de deportación de Trump podría separar a millones de familias y dejar a las escuelas la responsabilidad de reparar el daño

2024-10-29T23:23:59+00:00

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Durante las redadas de 2019 en plantas de procesamiento de pollo en el centro de Mississippi, agentes de inmigración arrestaron a casi 700 trabajadores indocumentados, muchos de ellos padres de niños que asistían a escuelas locales.

Los adolescentes recibieron mensajes de texto, en los que se les indicaba que dejaran la clase con urgencia y que buscaran a sus hermanos menores. Personas cuyos nombres no figuraban en la lista de recogida se presentaron para llevar a los niños a casa. El personal escolar se apresuró a asegurarse de que ningún niño regresara a un hogar vacío, mientras que el dueño de un gimnasio local improvisó un refugio temporal para los niños que no tenían a dónde ir.

En el Distrito Escolar del Condado de Scott, un 25% de los estudiantes latinos, cerca de 150 niños, faltaron a la escuela al día siguiente. Cuando docenas de niños continuaron ausentes, el personal se subió a los autobuses escolares y fue de puerta en puerta con comida, tratando de convencer a las familias de que era seguro que sus hijos regresaran. Las actividades académicas se retrasaron, afirmó Tony McGee, el superintendente del distrito en aquel momento. Los alumnos no podían concentrarse en sus clases, tanto profesores como alumnos estuvieron distraídos durante semanas.

“Adoptamos una actitud de ‘mamá y papá’ y nos enfocamos en cuidar a los niños”, dijo McGee. Si bien algunos se recuperaron rápidamente, otros estuvieron afectados durante meses. “Era evidente que aún había preocupación en sus corazones”.

En el pasado, se han llevado a cabo redadas masivas en lugares de trabajo, enfocándose también en los empleadores como medida para desalentar la inmigración no autorizada. Si el expresidente Donald Trump gana un segundo mandato y aplica sus estrictas políticas migratorias, lo sucedido en Mississippi podría repetirse con mayor frecuencia, impactando a millones de niños y sus escuelas.

Si Trump gana la reelección, ha asegurado que llevará a cabo la mayor operación de deportación en la historia de los Estados Unidos, utilizando todos los recursos a su alcance, desde la policía local hasta la Guardia Nacional y las fuerzas armadas. Tanto Trump y su compañero de fórmula, el senador de Ohio J.D. Vance, han rechazado repetidamente responder acerca de si deportarían a los padres de niños ciudadanos estadounidenses.

Sin embargo, cualquier plan de este tipo inevitablemente afectaría a padres de niños en edad escolar, dejando a los educadores con la responsabilidad de proporcionar alimentos, ropa, asesoramiento y otros apoyos. Aquellos educadores que ya han pasado por situaciones similares aconsejan que las escuelas que sirven a comunidades de inmigrantes deben comenzar a prepararse. Ya que, se estima que alrededor de 4.4 millones de niños nacidos en EE. UU. tienen al menos un padre sin documentos.

Además, no está claro si Trump intentaría debilitar las políticas de ‘escuelas santuario’ que algunos distritos implementaron durante su anterior presidencia para proteger a los estudiantes inmigrantes y sus familias en el recinto escolar.

Las políticas de Trump apuntan a los niños inmigrantes

Trump frecuentemente señala a los niños inmigrantes en sus discursos y propuestas políticas.

El año pasado, dijo que buscaría poner fin al derecho a la ciudadanía automática para los niños nacidos en EE.UU. de padres indocumentados y defendió su política de separar a los niños inmigrantes de sus familias en la frontera entre EE.UU. y México. No ha descartado deportar a mujeres y niños como parte de su plan de deportación masiva.

“Lo vamos a analizar muy de cerca”, dijo en una entrevista el mes pasado, aunque reconoció que las imágenes de las familias que eran llevadas a los autobuses “complicaría mucho la situación”.

Tanto Trump como Vance han caracterizado a los niños inmigrantes como una carga para las escuelas, señalando que sobrecargan las aulas y complican la labor de los maestros con sus necesidades lingüísticas. Durante su primer mandato, los asesores más cercanos a Trump intentaron, sin éxito, otorgar a los estados el poder de impedir que los niños indocumentados asistieran a escuelas públicas, tal como reportó Bloomberg News. Un influyente think tank conservador está buscando reactivar esta propuesta en caso de que Trump gane un segundo mandato.

MÁS: Cómo una nueva coalición defiende los derechos educativos de niños indocumentados

Los defensores de los derechos de los inmigrantes temen que Trump busque poner fin a una política federal que ha existido durante décadas y que considera a las escuelas como zonas ‘seguras’ o ‘protegidas’. En esas áreas, se supone que los agentes de inmigración no pueden vigilar o arrestar a las familias, excepto en circunstancias extraordinarias, para evitar que los niños se sientan desalentados a asistir a la escuela.

“Las acciones de ejecución realizadas en estas localidades tienen un efecto dominó”, comentó Heidi Altman, directora de defensa federal en el Centro Nacional de Leyes de Inmigración. “Es muy alarmante para las comunidades imaginar la posibilidad de una administración de Trump, tanto por la aplicación de la ley en áreas protegidas y en sus alrededores, como las escuelas, pero también por el impacto en las instituciones educativas y al acceso a la educación”.

Después de las redadas en Mississippi, algunos niños cuyos padres fueron detenidos se quedaron en un gimnasio local que sirvió como refugio temporal.

La campaña de Trump no respondió a preguntas sobre si el expresidente intentaría llevar a cabo actividades de aplicación de la ley migratoria en las escuelas o en sus alrededores como parte de su plan de deportación masiva. Sin embargo, el Proyecto 2025, un manual de políticas redactado por varios exfuncionarios de la Casa Blanca de Trump, propone anular cualquier documento que identifique ‘zonas protegidas’ donde la acción migratoria debería ser restringida.

Incluso cuando la aplicación de la ley de inmigración se lleva a cabo fuera del recinto escolar, puede tener efectos significativos en los niños y las escuelas.

Kheri Martínez tenía apenas 13 años cuando su madre fue detenida en las redadas de Mississippi en 2019. Ese día, ella fue una más de los casi 1000 niños cuyos padres fueron arrestados. Una amiga de la familia la recogió antes de tiempo de la escuela, y más tarde su padre —que estaba viajando por un trabajo de construcción— le informó que su madre había sido detenida.

La estudiante de séptimo grado reprimió sus propios miedos y les dijo a sus dos hermanitas que su mamá estaba trabajando horas extra. Para cenar, compartieron una pizza que llevaron amigos de la familia que estaban preocupados por lo que había ocurrido. Esa noche, Martínez se metió en la cama de sus padres con sus hermanitas, deseando que las cobijas que olían a su mamá le brindaran consuelo.

“Aunque no estoy segura de que mamá regrese hoy”, se dijo, “al menos tendré algo cercano que me recordará de ella, y se sentirá como si realmente estuviera aquí”.

Su mamá regresó a casa llorando a las 4 de la mañana. Los funcionarios de inmigración habían dejado en libertad a algunos padres de niños pequeños por motivos humanitarios, mientras se procesaban sus casos. En ese instante, Martínez sintió que podía volver a respirar.

Al día siguiente en la escuela, surgieron rumores de que se planeaba un ataque violento contra la institución y que el gobierno regresaría para llevarse a los niños. Todos parecían estar “en alerta”.

“Los niños hispanos, estábamos un poco desconcertados”, expresó Martínez. “En aquel momento, sentíamos que no éramos nosotros mismos”.

Las redadas de inmigración generan un profundo impacto emocional en los niños

Lo que vivió Martínez es una experiencia común entre los niños cuyos padres han sido detenidos en redadas migratorias. Diversas investigaciones han documentado el considerable impacto psicológico, emocional y financiero que tales operativos generan en los niños y sus familias.

Un estudio realizado por investigadores del Centro de Derecho y Política Social (The Center for Law and Social Policy), una organización sin ánimo de lucro, reveló que las redadas en Mississippi resultaron particularmente traumáticas para los niños que asistían a escuelas cercanas a una planta de procesamiento de pollo. Muchos presenciaron cómo sus padres eran esposados y forzados a entrar en furgones blancos al regresar de la escuela, lo que provocó gritos y llantos incontrolables.

El equipo de investigación señaló que los niños ‘continuaron padeciendo emocionalmente’ durante semanas y meses, y aquellos que se habían reunido con sus padres también mostraron signos de estrés postraumático y ansiedad por separación. Algunos niños de Kínder volvieron a mojar la cama, y los más pequeños retrocedieron en su habilidad para hablar. Era común que los niños regresaran a casa de la escuela, dejaran sus mochilas y durmieran el resto del día. Los adolescentes a menudo asumían un rol más activo en las tareas del hogar, como con el cuidado de niños y realizando trabajos remunerados para contribuir con la economía familiar.

Un pastor local y otros voluntarios recogieron alimentos para distribuirlos a las familias afectadas por las redadas en Mississippi en 2019.

De manera similar, los investigadores del Urban Institute documentaron cómo redadas migratorias realizadas en tres estados afectaron a aproximadamente 500 niños debido a la detención de sus padres.

Los niños cuyos padres resultaron detenidos fueron los más propensos a sufrir angustia emocional, aunque el temor se extendió también a otros pequeños preocupados de que sus propios padres fueran ‘llevados’ después. Según los maestros, la hora de los cuentos se transformaba en un momento de conversación sobre las redadas, con mucha carga emocional. Algunos niños interpretaron la ausencia de sus padres como un abandono, y hubo quienes empezaron a comer menos y bajaron de peso, mientras que otros empezaron a portarse mal o tenían problemas para dormir.

“Algunos padres relataron que, incluso meses después de las redadas, sus hijos seguían llorando por las mañanas al dejarlos en la escuela o guardería, un comportamiento que solía ser poco común”, indicó el informe. “Decían que los niños se obsesionaban con la idea de si sus padres irían a buscarlos a la escuela”.

MÁS: Cómo un distrito escolar apoyó a los estudiantes recién llegados este año

Las detenciones provocaron retrasos en el pago de alquiler en muchas familias, ya que a menudo los detenidos eran el sostén económico principal. Tres de cada cuatro padres señalaron que, tras las redadas, enfrentaron serias dificultades para conseguir suficiente comida. La inestabilidad de viviendas llevó a algunos niños a cambiar de escuela varias veces. Los investigadores descubrieron que estas experiencias “distraen a los niños y afectan su rendimiento académico”.

Para Martínez, pasó un año antes de que la escuela volviera a sentirse normal. A menudo, se sentía al límite, ella estaba ‘en alerta’ ante la posibilidad de otra redada.

“Me dolió durante un tiempo”, confesó Martínez.

Cómo las escuelas y las familias pueden apoyar a los niños

Los líderes escolares sostienen que es complicado prepararse para una redada migratoria, ya que, por lo general, los agentes no notifican a las instituciones con antelación. Sin embargo, las escuelas que apoyan a comunidades inmigrantes pueden implementar medidas preventivas.

“Realizamos simulacros de incendios y tornados, evacuaciones de autobuses y, lamentablemente, en la actualidad también practicamos para situaciones de tiradores activos. Sin embargo, no hay muchos simulacros para redadas de ICE (El Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos)”, dijo McGee, el exsuperintendente del Condado de Scott. “Cuando las familias están divididas y eres responsable de cómo regresan esos niños a casa y quién los cuida, es útil tener una idea, ese: Oye, necesitas estar preparado”.

El personal escolar que ha vivido redadas en sus comunidades sostiene que es fundamental establecer un protocolo de emergencia sobre cómo deben ser entregados los niños en la escuela si su cuidador autorizado no está disponible para recogerlos. También es útil identificar un posible refugio temporal para los estudiantes, ya sea en una escuela, una iglesia local o un centro comunitario.

McGee y su equipo se reunían a diario con los directores de las escuelas donde muchos niños se vieron afectados por las redadas para indagar sobre el bienestar de los maestros y los estudiantes. El distrito también proporcionó recursos para ayudar a los maestros a hablar sobre las redadas en clase, para explicarles la situación a los niños no afectados y ayudarlos a empatizar con los sentimientos de sus compañeros que sí lo fueron.

“No nos involucramos en la controversia política de porqué sucedió esto o aquello”, expresó McGee. “Nuestra responsabilidad es cuidar de los niños”.

Gabriela Uribe Mejía con su hija, Kheri Martínez. Martínez tenía apenas 13 años cuando su madre fue detenida en las redadas de Mississippi en 2019.

Martínez encontró un gran apoyo en la atención que le dieron dos maestros durante ese momento. Cada uno, en diferentes momentos, la apartaron para conversar sobre lo sucedido y le dijeron que si necesitaba más tiempo para terminar sus tareas, solo tenía que comunicarles.

“Eso fue muy valioso para mí”, dijo Martínez. “Me hizo sentir que: “Ah, ellos me comprendían”.

Además, su familia ideó un plan claro sobre qué hacer y a dónde ir en caso de otra redada migratoria, lo que contribuyó a aliviar parte de la ansiedad. Por ejemplo, Martínez sabe que si su familia necesita vender sus cosas y regresar a México, ella se quedaría en los Estados Unidos para completar su carrera universitaria.

“Vas a cargar algo que no te corresponde, pero no hay opción”, le explicó Gabriela Uribe Mejía a su hija. “Ella dice: ‘No te preocupes, yo entiendo, yo sé qué hacer,’ pero es una niña”.

Aun con los esfuerzos realizados, los defensores de los derechos de los inmigrantes no pueden evitar preocuparse por las consecuencias que este proceso dejará en la vida de los niños y sus familias.

Lorena Quiroz, quien lidera la Alianza de Inmigrantes por la Justicia y la Equidad en Mississippi, se unió con otros miembros de la comunidad. Juntos visitaron hogares para preguntar a las familias del vecindario si requerían alimentos, ayuda legal o cualquier otro tipo de asistencia, tras las redadas en el estado.

Quiroz ha sido testigo de familias divididas por el consumo de alcohol y las peleas, así como de adolescentes que decidieron abandonar la escuela. Muchas madres todavía sienten vergüenza por las semanas en las que usaron un grillete en el tobillo, visible bajo sus tradicionales faldas mayas. Los adultos aún se emocionan al pasar cerca de las plantas de procesamiento de pollo, recordando las difíciles experiencias que vivieron y la vulnerabilidad de sus familias ante la amenaza de la deportación.

“La gente habla de lo ocurrido como si hubiera sido ayer”, dijo Quiroz. “Imagina que eso sucediera en todas partes”.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es una periodista senior especializada en educación, ubicada en Chicago. Puedes comunicarte con ella a través de su correo electrónico: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Kids like free school meals. States are trying to reel in the costs.

2024-10-03T11:50:00+00:00

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A few years ago, so few high schoolers ate breakfast in Vermont’s Essex Westford School District that the cafeteria looked like “a ghost town” in the morning, recalls Scott Fay, the director of child nutrition.

But now that breakfast is free for all students, kids are packing the cafeteria to talk, munch on fresh cranberry-orange bread, and finish homework before the first bell.

“It’s really amazing to see that transition,” said Fay, who helped lobby for the Vermont law that expanded free meals. That’s “what real equity looks like in our cafeterias,” he said. “It’s all these kids coming together in the morning, eating.”

Fresh-baked breakfast bread has been a hit with students in the Essex Westford School District.

The number of kids eating breakfast and lunch has jumped in the eight states that now have universal free school meals. The policy has attracted extra attention since Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who helped bring universal free school meals to his state, as her running mate.

Proponents say that rise in participation is a success story because it means fewer kids are hungry at school and that families have more money to spend on groceries at home. But it’s also brought some logistical challenges and — perhaps more importantly — higher-than-expected costs. That’s raising concerns in some states about the long-term sustainability of these programs. In their first year of operation, universal free school meal programs came in over budget in at least six of the eight states that offer them.

And there may be a limit to how far universal meals can expand. There’s a federal bill in Congress, but so far the policy has passed only in Democratic-controlled legislatures. Republican-led states have generally opposed universal meals due to concerns about cost and parental responsibility.

“The Legislature has added $20-30 million in property tax pressure to pay for school meals for all students, including those from affluent families,” Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement last year when he allowed the bill to pass into law without his signature. “This will be paid for by all Vermonters, including those with low incomes.”

Why universal meal programs cost more than expected

The main reason several states’ programs are over budget is that more kids ate breakfast and lunch than expected. Most of the kids who are new to eating for free would have paid full price in the past, and now states are picking up their tab.

Some states had a more sophisticated method for devising a budget, while others used estimates from the pandemic — when the federal government paid for all students to eat for free. That didn’t turn out to be great predictors of demand because so many kids were absent during that time. On top of that, the cost of food is high, and federal reimbursement rates for meals aren’t keeping up.

“Anytime you are trying something new and bold like this — and this is bold and big — it’s going to take awhile to really get the modeling down of how much things cost,” said Alexis Bylander, who oversees child nutrition programs and policy for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center. “We’re learning a lot from these states that are implementing first.”

Related: Quesadillas, fajitas, tacos: Parents helped create 15 new recipes this Colorado district is trying this year

When Michigan launched its program last school year, for example, the state budgeted $160 million, but needed an extra $30 million to cover the actual costs. This school year, the state budgeted $200 million.

New Mexico’s program ended up costing twice as much as the $20 million budgeted by state lawmakers. State education officials, who said they knew that estimate was too low, expect to spend $49 million this year.

Colorado’s program cost $162 million last school year. State lawmakers had to dip into state reserves to add $56 million after an unexpected shortfall.

Vermont lawmakers, meanwhile, allocated $29 million for the first year of their program, but the state needed less: only $24 million.

State officials say they are doing a lot to rein in costs, including signing up more schools for the federal program that reimburses for meals at the highest rate. That program recently expanded which schools are eligible. Colorado hired a consultant to help districts figure out steps they could take to get the most federal money possible, and formed an advisory group that’s working to lower state costs.

No state is looking to get rid of universal free school meals due to higher costs. But some officials are expressing worries about their fiscal impact.

Vermont's Essex Westford School District has been able to provide students a greater variety of fresh and locally sourced foods under the expanded school meals program.

Minnesota Sen. Zach Duckworth, a Republican who voted in favor of the law, told Minnesota Public Radio last month he worried about whether the state could afford its program long-term without a new revenue source. The state initially thought it would need around $200 million a year for universal meals, but costs came in around $40 million higher.

If the state can’t keep that up, he said, school districts may have to “pinch pennies” to fund their own programs.

Diane Golzynski, the deputy superintendent who oversees child nutrition for the Michigan Department of Education, worries that right now universal meals aren’t guaranteed in state law. That means they’re vulnerable to the annual budgeting process that could “rip this rug out from underneath the feet of our families,” she said.

Earlier this year in Vermont, where the program did not go over budget, the governor proposed repealing universal free school meals to save the state $20 million as part of a bid to curb an expected property tax hike. But that idea didn’t go anywhere.

Schools see many benefits from universal free meals

Breakfast and lunch participation has continued to rise in several of the states that offer free meals to all students. That trend is especially notable because many other states were not able to sustain their pandemic-era participation rates and saw big drops when the national free meals provision ended.

When California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont rolled out universal free meals during the 2022-23 school year, they saw increases in the average number of kids eating breakfast each day ranging from 8% to 13%. Students eating lunch went up by 4% to 7%, according to data compiled by the Food Research & Action Center.

States that launched universal meals more recently have seen similar upticks. New Mexico, for example, saw a 4% increase in kids eating breakfast and lunch last school year, state education officials said.

Related: Food for thought: Museum exhibit highlights Philly’s crucial role in the history of school lunch

The increase in breakfast consumption is an especially big deal, educators and state officials say, because it can set kids up for success for the rest of their school day. Now, more schools put grab-and-go kiosks in the hallway, allow kids to eat breakfast in the classroom, or serve a “second chance” breakfast later in the morning.

“Breakfast and learning are so closely tied,” said Deanne Kelleher, Michigan’s director of health and nutrition services.

Her state has seen the biggest increase in breakfast consumption among middle schoolers, who often have an early start time but are too sleepy to eat before school.

Some research has found that universal free school meals can boost students’ test scores and attendance rates. It also can decrease stigma and bullying in the lunchroom.

Some schools have faced challenges stemming from serving more students, such as longer lines and kids not having enough time to eat. Some schools are considering longer lunch periods or limiting how many kids line up at once.

And though more kids eating for free can throw off the state budget, it generally means that at the district level, schools are taking in more money. That often means they can afford to cook more from scratch and offer more options to kids.

April Liles, the director of food services for Waltham Public Schools in Massachusetts, was able to use her extra funds to hire a part-time dietician who helps adapt meals for kids with gluten allergies or who need a vegetarian meal. Her high schools now offer 15 options for lunch each day — from a panini to a grilled veggie burger to a taco bar — to help guarantee kids can find something that meets their needs.

Rosie Krueger, Vermont’s director of child nutrition programs, said now that districts in her state have guaranteed revenue coming in and aren’t chasing after unpaid meal debt, they’re able to put higher food quality standards in their contracts. Instead of asking: “What is the bare minimum that you can offer for the lowest possible price?” she sees schools include requirements for more fruits, vegetables, and locally sourced food.

Universal free school meal programs have allowed many schools to offer more fruits, vegetables, and locally sourced food. Colorado's Jefferson Junior/Senior High School recently set out apples for students.

In the Essex Westford School District, Fay’s school nutrition budget typically ran a deficit of $70,000 to $100,000 before Vermont launched universal meals. Now he can afford to buy local beef to make homemade meatballs. Kids liked them so much that the kitchen staff got sore hands from all the scooping. With the extra funds, Fay was able to buy a $25,000 machine that could shape those meatballs more quickly.

The programs can also help families trust schools more. Fay found that when the district stopped calling families asking for unpaid meal debt, that school principals were able to get through to those families more easily to talk about things like their child’s behavior or a support they could offer.

“The more phone calls we made collectively, made them less and less apt to pick up the phone when the school called,” Fay said. “It was driving a wedge between the district and some of those families who needed us the most.”

Will more states offer free school meals to all?

Proponents for universal free school meals, like Bylander, say they don’t think the higher-than-expected price tags have deterred supporters or created new opposition to the policy.

“The people that really balked or were upset about the policy costing more than expected probably weren’t the people who strongly supported it to begin with,” she said.

Still, efforts to create a permanent universal free school meals program at the national level haven’t gone anywhere. And while former President Donald Trump approved the pandemic program that temporarily made school meals free for all, it’s unlikely he would support that again.

Other efforts to make pandemic-era policies that expanded the social safety net permanent have been polarizing.

When federal officials created a permanent Summer EBT program, for example, some Republican-led states said they didn’t want to pay the administrative costs or that their families didn’t need the extra food assistance.

Opponents often say the state shouldn’t cover the cost of feeding kids whose families can afford to pay and that limited state funds could be better spent elsewhere. Proponents counter that many families who do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals also struggle to afford food. This school year, a family of four that makes over $58,000 didn’t qualify for any school meal aid.

Some Republican-led states have taken steps toward expanding free school meals without making them universal. In South Carolina, Republican State Sen. Katrina Shealy was able to convince her colleagues to make previously reduced-price meals free, since it had a much smaller price tag than the universal program she initially wanted.

In South Dakota, House Rep. Kadyn Wittman, one of 11 Democrats in the state legislature, introduced a bill to make all school meals free, but that swiftly died in committee.

“I got my ass handed to me,” she said.

So she went back to the drawing board and built a coalition of school staffers and other advocates who lobbied lawmakers to support a different bill to make reduced-price meals free. That came with a price tag of around $630,000. But the bill still failed.

“I don’t think it was the price tag,” Wittman said. “There is still this belief that we should not be ‘raising other people’s kids.’”

Wittman is trying again. She plans to highlight the origins of the school lunch program — one of which was making sure kids were well-fed and healthy enough to defend the country in times of war — and how this financial investment could pay dividends later for academic achievement and attendance.

“How do you eat an elephant?” she said. “One bite at a time.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

VP debate tackles school shootings: Vance backs more police, Walz supports gun-control measures

2024-10-02T04:34:51+00:00

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To make schools safer, should America invest more in school security measures and police officers? Or do more to limit access to guns?

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio agreed at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate that gun violence is a scourge on American youth. But they laid out different visions of how to address the problem.

Vance, the Republican running mate of former President Donald Trump, echoed comments he made in the wake of a recent school shooting in Georgia that cast school resource officers and so-called school hardening as the most realistic solution to gun violence. Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, said that red flag laws and better background checks could help keep guns out of the hands of people who would use them to do harm.

Both invoked their perspectives as fathers who send their children into the world each day and hope they return. Walz said that his 17-year-old son recently witnessed a shooting at a community center.

The exchange came during a wide-ranging and largely polite debate that focused heavily on immigration and the economy and included big promises about child care. The nearly two-hour debate was hosted by CBS and moderated by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, a Face the Nation moderator.

This could be the last debate before the election. When Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump debated on Sept. 10, there was a brief mention of the child tax credit but no discussion of K-12 education. Harris has said she would debate Trump again, but so far Trump has not agreed.

Vance favors more school security, Walz does not

The exchange about gun violence opened with a question to Vance about whether he agreed with the idea of charging parents when their children commit acts of violence, as happened after shootings in Oxford, Michigan, and Apalachee, Georgia. Studies find that most school shooters obtain their guns at home.

Vance said he would defer to local law enforcement on those decisions. Then — as he did throughout the debate — he linked the problem to immigration, in this case by talking about cartels trafficking in guns. He reiterated his belief that keeping guns out of the hands of “bad guys” is not realistic but that schools can be made safer.

“I don’t want my kids to go to school in a school that feels unsafe or where there are visible signs of security,” Vance said. “But I, unfortunately, think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better, we have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger. And, of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers,” referring to police in schools.

Walz countered that he had visited schools in Finland and not seen those same kinds of hardening measures, despite high rates of gun ownership. Finland tightened gun regulations in the wake of two school shootings in 2007 and 2008, including requiring a license and gun registration.

“Do you want your schools hardened to look like a fort?” Walz said. “When we know there’s countries around the world that their children aren’t practicing these types of drills. They’re being kids. … You can still keep your firearms and we can make a difference.”

In the wake of high-profile school shootings, U.S. schools have already added many of the “hardening” measures that Vance called for.

Nearly all public schools control access to their doors when kids are in the building with measures like locks and monitoring. Many now use a single point of entry. Around 60% of public schools also control access to their grounds when school is in session with barriers like a locked gate.

And while some school districts have reduced the presence of police on school campuses in recent years, others have brought back school police or added more security. Around 45% of public schools had an armed police officer or other sworn law enforcement officer present at least once a week during the 2021-22 school year, the most recent federal data shows.

Most schools plan for the possibility of an active shooter and conduct lockdown drills, though there’s debate over the right way to do that so that kids aren’t traumatized by the drills.

Last year, an NPR/Ipsos poll found that 88% of K-12 parents supported teaching kids basic lockdown procedures, and 63% agreed that kids should be required to do at least one drill a year starting in kindergarten. There was much less support for using realistic measures like banging on classroom doors or playing the sound of gunshots.

Despite their terrifying frequency and randomness, mass shootings at schools represent a very small share of gun deaths. Vance said law enforcement needs to be empowered to address gun violence in cities, and the country needs to do more to get to the root causes of mental health problems that he said many gun deaths stem from.

Walz noted that many gun deaths, especially in rural areas, are suicides and that children die by suicide when they obtain access to their parents’ guns. Around a third of deaths by gunfire among children and teens in 2021 were suicides, federal data shows. Walz said he would not want to stigmatize people with mental health problems as being more likely to commit violence.

“We start looking for a scapegoat — sometimes it just is the guns,” Walz said.

Walz is a gun owner and describes himself as a supporter of the Second Amendment. As governor, Walz has enacted enhanced background checks and red-flag laws that allow authorities to remove firearms from someone found by a judge to be a threat to themselves or others.

VP candidates discuss paid leave, strengthening child care

The high cost and limited availability of child care is widely viewed as reaching crisis levels, with parents and especially mothers forgoing job opportunities because they can’t find safe people to care for their children.

Meanwhile, child care workers often earn poverty wages, and child care providers aren’t offering as many seats as they could because they can’t find workers. The United States is also the only developed nation to not have a national paid leave policy.

As governor, Walz signed a bill that will provide 12 weeks of paid family leave and 12 weeks of paid medical leave, with the cost covered by a payroll tax, starting in 2026.

Asked how long employers should have to pay for employees to stay home after the birth of a child, Walz didn’t provide a direct answer but said that paid leave policies are good for families and can co-exist with pro-business policies. He also said child care workers need to be paid better.

Both vice presidential candidates highlighted the high cost of child care and lack of options for families. Cities like Detroit have tried to invest in their child care systems with the help of private philanthropy.

Vance said he believes there are bipartisan solutions on child care. He said current federal programs don’t provide enough flexibility for families to choose options like church-based child care and family co-ops. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website and other sources say faith-based and home child care options are eligible for federal funding. Vance had previously suggested grandparents could help out more with child care.

Trump has said that he would fix child care, and that it would be “not very expensive” compared to the trillions the federal government would collect until his tariff proposal. But he has not offered details.

Both campaigns have expressed support for an expanded child tax credit, though they differ on the amount of money families should receive. It’s also unclear if Vance and Trump would support giving the full payment to parents who earn little or no income, as the pandemic-era policy Harris supports reviving would.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

COVID money countdown: Schools exhaust pandemic aid as federal help winds down

2024-09-19T22:07:12+00:00

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Over the last three years, an influx of pandemic aid has been transformative for many schools.

Some were able to hire social workers or give every child a laptop for the first time. Others fixed up old buildings, tutored struggling students, or revamped summer school programs.

But that era is quickly drawing to a close. And this month marks an important stop on the way toward the end of COVID relief.

Schools have to say by the end of this month how they plan to spend the last of their $123 billion from the American Rescue Plan, the third and final batch of schools’ COVID aid from the federal government. Then they have until Jan. 28, 2025 to spend the money.

The deadline at the end of September matters a lot: Schools that have any money not earmarked by then could eventually have to return the funds to the federal government. And some states have said they are concerned that schools may be at risk of not meeting that deadline.

Schools can seek an extension to spend their remaining aid until March 2026. But that won’t give them more time to officially decide how to use it — leaving some scrambling to come up with a plan before the deadline in 11 days.

“We have been in contact, in many cases multiple times, with districts and charters to remind them of their responsibility to obligate these funds,” Tom Horne, Arizona’s state superintendent, said in a news release earlier this week. “Most are showing the ability to do this, but a number of them are at great risk of reverting funds.”

Some Arizona school districts or charter schools had yet to commit any of their funds to a specific purpose, Horne said, and many others have earmarked only a fraction of their aid.

Michigan said it expected some federal aid would be returned by schools, but noted it had left less than 1% of the first two aid packages on the table.

“We do anticipate that some school districts and subgrantees will not be able to obligate funds by the end of the month and may revert funds back to the federal government,” Jeremy Meyer, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Education, told Chalkbeat in an email.

Still, federal officials told reporters on Thursday they were confident that little if any money was at risk of being returned by schools. Schools across the country have already spent and been reimbursed for 87% of their American Rescue Plan dollars, officials said. Much of the remaining money has been spent, too, but hasn’t yet shown up on spending trackers due to record-keeping lags.

Schools can’t use the aid to pay staff salaries after this month. But they can continue using it to do things like pay tutors to work with their students, finish up a construction project, or contract with a community organization to help with attendance outreach.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona spoke with Detroit high schoolers about how pandemic aid helped schools invest in student mental health earlier this month.

Federal officials have said they would look especially favorably on applications to spend the money beyond the usual timeline on Biden administration priorities, such as intensive tutoring, efforts to boost attendance, and extra instructional time.

Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Puerto Rico have already applied for and received spending extensions on behalf of some districts and schools. These extensions cover some $1.1 billion in aid, federal officials said.

Several other states, including Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., told Chalkbeat that they intended to apply for spending extensions in the coming weeks or months.

Nationwide, schools have already spent about $1.5 billion beyond original deadlines after getting extensions on their first two aid packages, federal officials said.

Schools have struggled for a number of reasons to spend down their pandemic aid, though often not for lack of need.

Construction delays held up spending in Mississippi, where schools spent a large share of aid on building projects. Meanwhile, supply-chain issues slowed spending in Tennessee and Illinois.

In Colorado, some schools had trouble filling certain educator positions amidst national shortages, or they planned to hire a company to provide training and were still waiting for that service to come through, Meyer wrote.

In other cases, not as many students or staff showed up to certain activities like summer school or after-school programs as originally anticipated, so they ended up costing less than expected.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Harris-Trump debate: No mention of K-12 schools amid fierce arguments over abortion, immigration

2024-09-11T03:33:33+00:00

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The first and perhaps only presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump did not include any discussion of the ongoing struggles of American students to recover from pandemic disruptions. It did not include any discussion of how to make American schools safer. It did not include any conversation about how to control the cost of college or ensure students are prepared for well-paying jobs.

The more than 90-minute debate hosted by ABC News saw Harris repeatedly press Trump on abortion rights, his relationships with dictators, and his authoritarian tendencies. Trump injected anti-immigrant rhetoric in response to questions on numerous other topics, repeating false claims that newcomers to the country are eating household pets.

But Trump did not bring up his promise to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education or repeat his false claim made recently to the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty that schools are performing gender surgeries on children. Harris did not discuss her promises to protect LGBTQ students or make college more affordable.

One of the few mentions of a policy that would affect children came in the opening minutes of the debate, when a moderator asked Harris about whether the economy is doing better now than four years ago. Harris did not directly answer the question. But in response, she drew attention to her proposal to expand the child tax credit and boost it to $6,000 for kids age 1 and under.

Harris previously proposed reinstating a pandemic-era policy that reached many more low-income families and boosted the credit from $2,000 to as much as $3,600 per child, depending on their age.

Related: A bigger child tax credit could help students a lot. Will Harris or Trump make it happen?

In 2021, those payments helped cut child poverty nearly in half, and reduced child hunger and housing instability — all of which can have negative effects on kids’ schooling. Trump did not mention the policy, though his campaign has said he would consider raising the credit for families of all income levels.

“We know that young families need support to raise their children,” Harris said. A bigger credit would ensure “young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children.”

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met on stage Tuesday in Philadelphia. No other debates are scheduled, and it may be the only time they interact directly during their campaigns.

Trump drew attention to the Biden administration’s troubled student loan forgiveness efforts in response to a question about abortion rights. Harris has touted improvements to the public service loan forgiveness program in speeches to teachers and pledged to do more.

Trump brought up the issue after being asked if he would veto a national abortion ban. Trump said he wouldn’t have to, apparently because Congress would be too divided, then pivoted to say Harris would be unable to pass federal abortion protections, just as some of President Joe Biden’s loan forgiveness plans have been blocked in the courts.

“She can’t get the vote,” he said. “She won’t even come close to it. So it’s just talk. You know what it reminds me of? When they said they’re going to get student loans terminated, and it ended up being a total catastrophe, the student loans. And then her, I think probably her boss, if you call him a boss, he spends all this time on the beach.

“But look, her boss went out and said, ‘We’ll do it again. We’ll do it a different way.’ He went out and got rejected again by the Supreme Court. So all these students got taunted with this whole thing about this whole idea and how unfair that would have been.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

A bigger child tax credit could help students a lot. Will Harris or Trump make it happen?

2024-09-10T21:31:39+00:00

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The child tax credit’s expansion during the pandemic cut child poverty nearly in half — but that more-generous credit expired in 2021. Research indicates poverty hurts children academically and in other ways. And many families worry about the cost of living.

All of that has spurred the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to talk about once again making the child tax credit more generous.

The two candidates differ on who should benefit and how much money families should get; Trump’s campaign in particular has been short on details. But an expanded child tax credit has the potential to cut down on the housing instability and food insecurity that disrupts kids’ lives and hurts their schooling.

“People get very frustrated about education achievement in our country, and teachers get very frustrated that the solution is always for them to do more,” said Elizabeth Ananat, an economics professor at Barnard College who’s studied how an expanded child tax credit could help kids.

When families don’t get the help they need, schools are expected to step in as the “sole providers of basically every social program.”

That’s why “advocates, for a long time, have been thinking that one way to address the income education gap,” Ananat added, “is by giving more supports to low-income families.”

But Republicans have sunk similar proposals to expand the child tax credit in Congress. How much children benefit from this kind of assistance depends a lot on how the policy is designed. And some teachers in high-poverty schools say the more generous pandemic-era child tax credit barely scratched the surface of families’ needs.

“Even with the tax credit, they were impoverished,” said Phylicia Butler, who taught music at an Arkansas elementary school in 2021 when Congress temporarily raised the child tax credit and gave it to more families.

Parents in North Little Rock used the payments for food and rent, she said. But kids were still coming to school wearing the same shirt three days in a row, or with their feet poking out of their shoes.

The history of the child tax credit

The child tax credit has long had bipartisan support and is popular among voters.

Just before the pandemic, families could get a tax credit of up to $2,000 per child, but the policy excluded many of the nation’s poorest families who pay little or nothing in taxes. Then, in 2021, Congress significantly expanded the child tax credit through the American Rescue Plan.

That law gave families up to $3,600 for kids under 6 and $3,000 for other children under 18. Crucially, it was “fully refundable,” which meant families could get that money even if they didn’t have any income or didn’t make much. And half of the money could be paid in monthly installments, which especially helped families living paycheck to paycheck.

That temporary policy helped lift some 2.9 million children out of poverty and cut the child poverty rate nearly in half — the biggest single-year drop in at least 50 years. Poverty rates fell most sharply for Black and Hispanic children.

Nick Bates, who directs the Hunger Network in Ohio, a faith-based nonprofit that advocates for anti-poverty programs, remembers how the extra cash helped his family of four cover the rising cost of food. Other parents used it to pay for things benefiting their children’s physical health and social connections after the pandemic’s disruption, like the swim team or the local YMCA.

“People were like: ‘Oh, thank God we got that this month, because I didn’t know how we were going to afford groceries next week, or be able to pay off the credit card,’” Bates said. “This kept a lot of families from spiraling out.”

When the pandemic policy expired, the credit reverted back to $2,000 per child and again excluded the lowest-income families. If Congress takes no action, the credit will drop down to $1,000 per child at the end of next year.

The child tax credit: What Harris and Trump say

The impending expiration of the current child tax credit, plus the ongoing financial hardship many families are experiencing, has created an incentive for politicians to highlight the policy.

“People like the child tax credit,” said Ashley Burnside, a senior policy analyst at The Center for Law and Social Policy, a nonprofit that supports expanding the child tax credit. Through surveys, her organization has seen this kind of policy can “reach voters and show them that the government cares about them as they raise their kids.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has said she wants to reinstate the pandemic-era policy and raise the credit to $6,000 for families with children less than a year old. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, helped to enact a child tax credit in his state after the federal pandemic-era policy expired. It’s the largest in the nation for lower-income households.

Trump hasn’t released a detailed policy, but his campaign said he would consider raising the credit to $5,000 per child for families of all income levels after his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, proposed the idea. But the Republican Party platform, which Trump backed, calls for a $2,000 per child credit that excludes many low-income families.

Republicans in Congress have blocked efforts to expand the child tax credit, including a bill last month that would have helped some 16 million children from low-income families. Vance missed that vote.

Still, experts say competing proposals to increase the size of the child tax credit will have little effect on child poverty if the nation’s poorest families can’t benefit from it. That means how the credit is structured can matter more than how much the credit is worth.

Expanding who’s eligible — for example to parents who make less than $3,500 or who are undocumented — is “the meat of the benefit,” Ananat said.

The pandemic-era child tax credit helped kids

The pandemic provided ample evidence of how an expanded child tax credit benefits kids.

Families with children reported on multiple surveys that they used the money to pay for essentials like groceries, rent, utilities, and clothing. Food insecurity among families with kids dropped sharply. Many families also used the money to pay for child care — and likely were able to enroll in centers they couldn’t afford before.

Surveys showed that the expanded child tax credit in 2021 helped low-income families buy more fruit and meat.

The payments also helped low-income families stay in their homes and avoid moving due to unpaid rent or mortgage bills. Low-income families who got the credit were less likely to say they were living “doubled up” with other family or friends — a living arrangement that typically leads schools to designate children as homeless.

Hunger, housing instability, and an unexpected move can all negatively affect a child’s ability to learn and regularly attend class.

Nagali Campos, a case manager who supports students experiencing homelessness in New Mexico’s Santa Fe Public Schools, recalls that some families in her community donated their payments to mutual aid groups so they could help undocumented parents who’d lost their jobs, some of whom struggled to access the payments they were newly eligible for.

Black and Hispanic families were especially likely to say they used the credit to pay for extracurricular activities and tutoring for their kids.

Many Black and Hispanic families also said the credit helped them save for college or send their child to a different school.

An expanded child tax credit’s benefits for society

A permanent expansion of the child tax credit could also have lasting effects on kids’ lives.

Research recently released by Ananat and Irwin Garfinkel, a research scientist at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, comes to the conclusion that a permanent version of the 2021 pandemic-era child tax credit would likely shrink racial and socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment.

Historically, decreases in child poverty have narrowed gaps between how kids of color and white students perform academically at school.

A paper released last month by researchers at the University at Albany, SUNY, for example, found that household income explains more than half of the gap in reading scores for Black and white students, and just under half of the gap for Hispanic and white students. When Michael Petrilli, the president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which commissioned the study, laid out the findings, he described an expanded child tax credit as one possible solution.

The program would more than pay for itself, because those kids would likely go on to earn more at work, pay more in taxes, be healthier, and require fewer social services.

A permanent expansion would likely help more of the hardest-to-reach families, too. During the temporary boost, some families missed out because they don’t file tax returns each year and didn’t know to do so.

If the program stuck around, it would be easier to tap “trusted messengers” to do intensive outreach, said Nikhita Airi, a research associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center who’s studied the child tax credit.

That would be especially helpful for immigrant parents who may worry that filling out tax paperwork could affect their immigration status, and for new parents, who may not know about the credit.

“It’s a pretty decent way to get cash out to families fast,” Airi said. “We did see in 2021 some of the flaws in that. There are gaps.”

Chalkbeat national editor Erica Meltzer contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

14 states pledge to cut chronic absenteeism rates by half over 5 years

2024-09-09T09:00:00+00:00

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Fourteen states have taken up a challenge to significantly reduce the rate at which children miss a lot of school, responding to a recent call from a bipartisan coalition for states to prioritize school attendance.

Some of the states making the pledge have had among the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in recent years, such as Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado. Others signing on include: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.

More states have expressed interest and may join later this school year.

Each of the states that signed on is committing to cut chronic absenteeism, which counts the share of kids who miss 10% or more of their school year, by half over a five-year period. States will be able to choose their starting point and set goals from there. Some may start from the 2021-2022 pandemic school year, when absenteeism peaked in many schools, while others may start with a more recent year.

In a sign of how far and wide the nation’s chronic absenteeism crisis spans, the states are located across the U.S. and are led by a mix of Republican and Democratic governors.

The need to boost school attendance has become a rare point of bipartisan agreement in education policy, and that formed the backdrop for why three groups — the nonprofit Attendance Works, the civil rights group EdTrust, and the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank — came together to launch this challenge in July.

“We did try to make sure we had a set of states who could bring a whole variety of conditions so that when we say it’s possible, it’s feasible, to reduce chronic absence by 50%, people see a state that looks kind of like theirs,” said Hedy Chang, the director of Attendance Works. “We think by demonstrating the possibilities that that will inspire others to join.”

A common theme among these “early adopter” states is that they won’t be starting from scratch, Chang said. Each had already committed to tackling absenteeism in their state and had some staff or initiatives in place. Some will be able to jump in quickly, while others will need some time to organize their teams.

Still, she said, the fact these states signed demonstrates there’s “a building consensus in the field that we need to address chronic absence, and that reducing chronic absence by 50% is a reasonable goal.”

Some states previously announced their intentions. Colorado, for example, has set a goal of having just 17.8% of students be chronically absent by the 2026-27 school year. Colorado’s goal would have more students attending school regularly than before the pandemic.

During the 2021-22 school year, more than 35% of Colorado students missed so much school they were considered chronically absent. While that rate has been improving, a recent Associated Press analysis found that Colorado had the fifth-worst rate of chronic absenteeism in the nation in the 2022-23 school year.

During a home visit in 2022, Julia Madera, an attendance advocate in Greeley, Colorado, talks by phone with the mother of a student who hasn’t shown up to school, as another advocate, Domanic Castillo, looks on.

Arkansas plans to use last school year’s chronic absenteeism rate as a baseline, but has yet to release those figures. Around 26% of students were chronically absent in the state during the pandemic, and schools lowered that to around 22% in the 2022-23 school year.

“If students are not in class, they are not learning content they need to know,” Jacob Oliva, Arkansas’ education secretary, said in a statement. “That is why we are committed to participating in this program. We not only want to raise awareness about the importance of students being in school, but also to show our commitment to improving outcomes in this critical area.”

For some states, the goal won’t be too difficult to achieve.

In Connecticut, for example, 23.7% of students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year, and by last school year that rate had fallen to 17.7%. The state would need to lower absenteeism by another 6 percentage points over the next two years if it sets its starting point at the pandemic peak.

In Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin launched a statewide task force focused on raising attendance, schools lowered the rate at which kids missed a lot of school from a pandemic high of 20.1% to 16.1% last school year, and would need to reduce it another 6 points to hit the campaign’s mark.

Similarly, in Rhode Island, where Democratic Gov. Dan McKee has attracted national attention for combating absenteeism with a comprehensive strategy, schools reduced their chronic absenteeism rate from 34.1% during the pandemic peak to 24.7% last school year. The state is now around 7.7 percentage points shy of the campaign’s goal.

Others have further to go. New Mexico, for example, cut chronic absenteeism from a pandemic high of 40.7% to 32.8% last school year, making it still 12.4 percentage points above the target.

And several other states have yet to release chronic absenteeism data for last school year.

A few states that signed the pledge are among a wave of states that have passed new laws aimed at getting more kids to regularly attend school. West Virginia passed a law requiring schools to get in touch with families after just one absence. Iowa has a new law that requires the families of kids who are on track to be chronically absent to meet with school staff — a step put in place before they get referred to the county attorney.

Carl Felton III, a policy analyst at EdTrust, says his organization is hoping to use this campaign to nudge states to use strategies to boost attendance such as building relationships with families, providing mental health support to kids, and creating a welcoming school environment. On the flip side, they want to discourage punitive policies like referring families to truancy court, fining parents, or calling in police officers.

“It can make folks feel attacked or blamed,” he said, “when really what people need is support.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

How do you boost school attendance? In Rhode Island, with public rankings and Oprah-style giveaways

2024-08-27T22:03:20+00:00

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When crossing a busy street kept a child from catching the bus, George J. West Elementary School Principal Lisa Vargas-Sinapi had a practical solution: Let’s move the bus stop.

When kids are sick, they’re offered appointments at the school’s health clinic.

And if families share plans to take children on an extended vacation, Vargas-Sinapi explains why that could hurt their education and helps identify child care so they can stay in school.

“We do walk a fine line,” Vargas-Sinapi said. “We keep the expectation, but we’re offering the support — whatever that may be.”

There’s no lone cause of the absenteeism crisis, and no catchall solution either. But one factor for improving school’s attendance is constant — effort.

In Rhode Island, attendance expectations are front and center, reactions to potential problems are swift, and everyone from mayors to doctors stresses the issue. When students miss school, it shows up right away on a dashboard for anyone to see. The governor checks the dashboard several times a day, and schools get a call if he spots a problem. Meanwhile, school staff like Vargas-Sinapi are solving problems big and small that keep kids from coming to school.

Experts say this kind of comprehensive approach is what it takes to move the needle on chronic absenteeism. Rhode Island’s work has earned praise from the White House and was spotlighted by a bipartisan coalition urging schools to prioritize better attendance. And other states like Nevada and Hawaii have reached out to Rhode Island to learn about its strategies.

But state and school leaders say they still have a lot of work to do to get more kids in school — and to keep them there. Sustaining the momentum is hard, especially as schools get closer to pre-pandemic rates of absenteeism, leaving the most challenging attendance issues to solve.

“We are not taking our foot off the gas,” said Angélica Infante-Green, Rhode Island’s education commissioner. “We don’t want people to think: ‘OK, we’re good enough.’ It’s not good enough.”

Why Rhode Island’s attendance model stands out

Before the pandemic, 19% of Rhode Island students were chronically absent, meaning they’d missed 18 or more days of school. That rate shot up to 34% during the 2021-22 school year — when absenteeism peaked across the nation — then dropped to 29% the following year. It was the fourth-largest decline among states that year, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and Stanford University Professor Thomas Dee.

Last school year, Rhode Island’s rate dipped again to 25%.

Asa Messer Elementary School in Providence, Rhode Island hosted a dance marathon to celebrate improvements in school attendance.

Education policy experts who’ve examined Rhode Island’s attendance strategy say there are two key components that make it stand out.

The first is the Rhode Island Department of Education’s public “leaderboard” that displays attendance metrics for every school. It updates daily and is connected to how students are performing academically. Everyone from parents to mayors can see how kids who are absent a lot tend to score worse in reading and math.

“It has been shocking for people,” Infante-Green said. “When we say ‘every day counts,’ now they see the difference.”

The second is a push to get people outside of schools working to reduce chronic absenteeism. Governor Dan McKee, a Democrat who has made improving attendance a statewide priority, asked mayors and town managers to sign an agreement listing concrete steps they’d take to boost attendance, such as offering kids leadership opportunities in their hometowns. In return, they’d be eligible for a new state grant that can be used to build and expand community centers that offer services like tutoring. All but one signed on.

Other state departments got involved, too. Rhode Island’s secretary of commerce asked local businesses not to schedule high schoolers to work during school hours, and the health department tasked pediatricians with asking families about how often their kids miss school when they come in for a check-up.

That’s a real shift from the past, when educators tackled absenteeism mostly on their own, said Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd, a Georgetown University think tank.

“One of the oddly silver linings of the pandemic is that it has helped policymakers, both within education and without, understand that the education of students is a community responsibility,” said Toch, whose think tank published a report this month about Rhode Island’s attendance work. “There are many other student- and family-serving public entities and the private sector, as well, in the form of employers, who have an important role to play in getting kids to school.”

Prior to the pandemic, 37% of students in Providence Public Schools were chronically absent. That spiked to 57% during the 2021-22 school year, then dropped over the next two years, eventually hitting 36% last school year.

George J. West was among the most improved. After peaking at 58% three years ago, the school brought chronic absenteeism down to 29% last school year.

District and school leaders credit that drop to a few strategies. Officials formed a district-level attendance team to support teams already working in schools, and started using a new data platform that made it easier to flag students as they racked up absences. Staff used data to pinpoint which kids would benefit most from a home visit before knocking on doors.

Schools paid attention to younger children, in particular. Nationally, absenteeism in kindergarten has been especially high.

Principal Cassandra Henderson attended a dance marathon with students at Asa Messer Elementary School in Providence, Rhode Island to celebrate attendance improvements.

At Providence’s Asa Messer Elementary, the school social worker called the parents of kindergartners who weren’t showing up regularly to see if there was any support the school could provide, while emphasizing that kids who miss lots of kindergarten tended to be absent a lot in the school’s later grades too.

“Once parents realize that, then it’s like: ‘Whoa, let me get my child to school,’” said Cassandra Henderson, Asa Messer’s principal.

Providence uses incentives and inclusion to boost attendance

One of the most difficult things about the absenteeism crisis is the number of factors driving it.

A parent may be struggling to get their child to school on time between jobs, or a teen may be missing class to care for a younger sibling. Pressure to work, mental health issues, and fears about falling behind at school can all keep kids from attending.

No one intervention solves all of those issues, and it’s not uncommon for schools to find that none of their attendance strategies are particularly effective, according to research released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation.

In Providence, working with a parent’s schedule is crucial, said Carina Pinto de Chacon, the district’s chief of family and community engagement.

A parent might need an early dropoff or a late pickup time. Finding a child an after-school slot or transferring siblings so they’re in the same building could be a big boost. Asa Messer Elementary helped one anxious second grader who missed a lot of school ease in with a shortened schedule and check-ins with the social worker.

Some Providence schools even deployed parents or school staff to pick up kids at their homes and walk them to school — dubbed a “walking school bus.” Some student advisory council members also started calling classmates to see if they needed a ride, Pinto de Chacon said.

Rewards for improved attendance, like pizza parties and gift cards, have also been helpful.

George J. West Elementary School in Providence rewarded students for good attendance with incentives like ice cream socials and extra recess time.

Still, school staff say many of the incentives kids like best don’t cost anything.

At George J. West Elementary, Vargas-Sinapi spun a wheel to award prizes like extra recess or computer time. At Asa Messer, kids got shoutouts for improved attendance over the loudspeaker or a chance to play freeze dance with their principal. Sometimes, the attendance team would “bum rush a classroom” to give kids high-fives and little gifts in an “Oprah-type of thing.”

“Students would then be a positive influence on their peers,” Henderson said.

Henderson also created a student council and invited kids to participate who wouldn’t normally be selected. Knowing they had to show up to make a meeting helped boost attendance.

And providing tutoring to English learners helped them bond with classmates, feel less anxious about language barriers, and enjoy coming to school more.

The Providence district’s goal is to lower chronic absenteeism to 20% over the next two years — nearly as low as the pre-pandemic rate in Rhode Island.

George J. West identified 56 students who improved their attendance a lot last school year, but still missed more than 18 days. The school’s counselor called their families this summer to see how the school could help them get out of that chronically absent category this year.

“We encouraged them: ‘You did a great job getting those kids here,’” said Assistant Principal Mary Bergeron. But then came the second part of the school’s message: “They are not where they need to be yet.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Cómo una nueva coalición defiende los derechos educativos de niños indocumentados

2024-08-05T18:24:00+00:00

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Una nueva coalición está en alerta máxima ante las violaciones de una sentencia histórica del Tribunal Supremo que garantiza a los niños el derecho a una educación pública y gratuita independientemente de su estatus migratorio.

Conocida como Educación para Todos (Education for All en inglés), la campaña está trabajando para contrarrestar la retórica antiinmigrante y las propuestas políticas conservadoras que buscan limitar el derecho a la educación de los niños indocumentados, que está protegido por la decisión del Tribunal Supremo de 1982 Plyler v. Doe.

La campaña, lanzada en mayo, está sucediendo en un momento en el que la Fundación Heritage, un think tank (instituto de investigación) vinculado al expresidente Donald Trump, está presionando a los estados a que cobren a los niños indocumentados una colegiatura, o matriculación, para asistir a la escuela pública. Esto, según Heritage, podría llevar al Tribunal Supremo a reconsiderar la sentencia de Plyler.

Los que respaldan la idea dicen que el costo de educar a niños indocumentados ha aumentado demasiado y que los estudiantes inmigrantes están utilizando recursos que pertenecen a los estudiantes estadounidenses. Los críticos sostienen que estas políticas negarían a cientos de miles de niños el derecho fundamental a una educación — y puede conmover a toda la economía de la nación, la red de seguridad social, y el sistema de justicia penal.

Desde el 2022, legisladores de al menos cuatro estados han intentado aprobar dichas medidas. Algunos distritos ya han impuesto barreras que impiden a los recién llegados matricularse, mientras que algunos miembros de la junta de la escuela han sugerido recopilar datos acerca del estatus migratorio de los estudiantes.

“Queremos tomarnos todo en serio,” dijo Will Dempster, vicepresidente de comunicaciones estratégicas del Centro Nacional de Leyes Migratorias, que lidera la coalición. “Están poniendo a prueba los límites de lo que es posible.”

Unas treinta y seis organizaciones se han unido a la coalición, entre ellas grupos pro inmigrantes, defensores de la educación y asesores legales, y los dos sindicatos de docentes más grandes de todo el país. Su trabajo abarca a estados fronterizos como Arizona y Texas, y estados que han inscrito a una gran proporción de estudiantes migrantes en estos últimos años, como Nueva York, California, Colorado, e Illinois.

Juntas van a estar vigilando las reuniones del consejo escolar, presionando a los legisladores estatales, educando familias acerca de sus derechos, y asegurándose que los funcionarios escolares entiendan la decisión Plyler. La meta es “coordinar cuando surjan problemas en algún estado y estar listos para movilizarnos,” dijo Dempster.

En medio de las preocupaciones por los costos, las escuelas apoyan a los estudiantes migrantes

La coalición también se opone a las declaraciones de Trump y de otros políticos conservadores acerca de los niños migrantes recientemente llegados.

“Están tomando nuestras escuelas,” dijo Trump el mes pasado durante el debate presidencial. A comienzos de este año, Trump falsamente aseguró que los niños migrantes habían desplazado a otros estudiantes en las escuelas de la ciudad de Nueva York, aunque en realidad el distrito tiene cupos vacíos que está intentando ocupar.

Del mismo modo, en junio, el representante de los Estados Unidos Aaron Bean, un republicano de Florida, llevó a cabo una audiencia educativa llamada “Las Consecuencias del Caos Fronterizo de Biden para las escuelas K-12″ en donde habló acerca del costo “impresionante” de educar a niños indocumentados.

“Se requiere una cantidad importante de recursos para poder educar a niños inmigrantes ilegales, esto altera el entorno de aprendizaje de todos los estudiantes,” dijo Bean. “Aulas saturadas, la necesidad de tener nuevas instalaciones, y las proporciones de alumnos por maestro son sólo algunos de los desafíos.”

El señaló que Colorado le está otorgando a las escuelas unos 24 millones de dólares adicionales este año para ayudar a cubrir los costos de educar a estudiantes recientemente llegados, y un par de escuelas en Austin, Texas en dónde los maestros dieron clases en los pasillos después de que hubo un gran aumento en estudiantes refugiados.

A algunas escuelas les ha costado poder satisfacer las necesidades de los estudiantes inmigrantes recientemente llegados. Esto es porque frecuentemente no disponen de suficiente personal bilingüe o reciben financiación limitada para educar a los estudiantes inmigrantes.

En el 2022, el gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbot dijo que la sentencia Plyler debe ser reconsiderada “porque los gastos son descomunales” y él pidió al Gobierno Federal que pagara los costos de los estados. Un legislador en su estado intentó prohibir que los estudiantes se matriculen en las escuelas públicas a menos que el gobierno federal hiciera precisamente eso, pero el proyecto de ley no prosperó.

Propuestas similares estaban siendo consideradas en Utah, Oklahoma y Tennessee, pero ninguna pasó — lo que indica que la idea sigue siendo algo controversial, inclusive entre conservadores.

Las necesidades de los estudiantes recientemente llegados no son únicas. Muchos niños nacidos en los Estados Unidos también necesitan apoyo lingüístico, terapia especializada en traumas, o ayuda para ponerse al día tras una interrupción de los estudios. Y algunas escuelas se están esforzando capacitando al personal para que ofrezca apoyo adicional de salud mental o al agregar programas de verano para ayudar a los niños a que se acostumbren a la vida en los Estados Unidos.

La coalición también tiene previsto destacar los numerosos beneficios que los estudiantes inmigrantes pueden aportar a sus compañeros y a sus comunidades de la escuela.

“Una de las cosas que podemos hacer es demostrar que los estudiantes inmigrantes pueden ser exitosos cuándo se les da el apoyo adecuado,” dijo Liza Schwartzwald, directora de justicia económica y empoderamiento familiar en la Coalición de Inmigración de Nueva York que pertenece a Educación para Todos. “No se trata de niños que están poniendo en peligro nuestro sistema educativo”.

Trabas para la matriculación, la recopilación de datos podría violar los derechos de los estudiantes

Aún, inclusive sin las restricciones estatales oficiales, los niños indocumentados frecuentemente se enfrentan a barreras para matricularse en las escuelas, inclusive en estados liderados por demócratas.

El verano pasado, el fiscal general de Nueva York supo acerca de políticas escolares qué hacían que fuese “difícil o imposible” que los estudiantes indocumentados se inscriban — probablemente violando las protecciones estatales o federales. Algunos distritos exigían a los estudiantes o a sus padres que proporcionaran sus tarjetas de identificación electoral, que no están disponibles para personas que no son ciudadanas, o amenazaban con ir a sus hogares si un estudiante no podía establecer su residencia con un contrato de alquiler, el cual puede ser difícil de obtener para las familias indocumentadas.
En toda la ciudad de Nueva York, los jóvenes inmigrantes recientemente llegados se han encontrado con listas de espera o se les ha dicho que no hay cupos cuando intentaban matricularse en la escuela, City Limits informó. Por otro lado, algunos estudiantes de secundaria recientemente llegados han sido presionados a abandonar sus estudios cuando necesitaban más apoyo para graduarse.
En Massachusetts, algunos distritos dijeron que no tenían previsto matricular a niños migrantes que viven en refugios temporales, hasta que el estado les dijera que tenían que hacerlo.
Cientos de escuelas de docenas de estados recientemente dijeron a The 74 que no permitirían matricular a un estudiante venezolano de 19 años con un inglés limitado a pesar de que legalmente tenía derecho a matricularse.

Los miembros de la coalición están en alerta ante estos y otros ejemplos de escuelas que posiblemente estén violando los derechos establecidos en Plyler.

Alejandra Vázquez Baur, encargada de dirigir el National Newcomer Network, que incluye a 250 maestros, líderes escolares, defensores comunitarios, e investigadores de todo el país, dijo que los miembros comparten acerca de ciertas infracciones cuando se reúnen cada dos meses.

Su organización ha presentado denuncias federales de derechos civiles en nombre de los estudiantes o ha ayudado a que las familias las presenten por cuenta propia, aunque ella sabe que el proceso generalmente es muy lento para poder ayudar a un niño antes de que este decida matricularse en otra escuela o no matricularse en absoluto.

Tessa Petit, directora ejecutiva de la Coalición de Inmigrantes de Florida, dijo que su organización le está pidiendo a sus 80 organizaciones miembros a “estar alerta” ante posibles violaciones de Plyler. Eso incluye trabajar con socios que organizan estudiantes de secundaria para ver si han escuchado acerca de casos de niños indocumentados que no pueden matricularse para la escuela.

Están pendientes de las escuelas del condado de Sarasota después de que Bridget Ziegler, integrante del consejo escolar y cofundadora del grupo político conservador Mamás por la Libertad, hizo preguntas sobre la posibilidad de que el distrito podría recopilar datos de los estatus migratorios de los estudiantes.

“He escuchado tanto del personal como a los miembros de la comunidad en general acerca de preocupaciones de poder responder a las barreras lingüísticas, pero también de que se está convirtiendo en una carga más pesada de lo usual,” ella dijo durante una reunión del consejo escolar en marzo. “Es solo una percepción? ¿Hay alguna manera de evaluar eso?”

El plan de la Fundación Heritage pide a las escuelas que recopilen los estatus migratorios de los estudiantes para llevar a cabo un análisis de costos. Generalmente no hacen esto porque puede asustar a las familias y hacer que no envíen a los niños a la escuela, lo cual sería un incumplimiento de Plyler.

Simpatizantes de los estudiantes indocumentados trabajan para convencer a los votantes

La Coalición de Inmigrantes de Florida también está contactando a los sindicatos de docentes y a miembros del consejo escolar para informarlos acerca de este tema, y está reuniéndose con legisladores para que se comprometan a no apoyar leyes que puedan perjudicar a los estudiantes migrantes.

“Nos damos cuenta que hay mucha educación que tiene que llevarse a cabo”, dijo Petit. “La reacción que estamos teniendo es ‘No, guau, eso no sucedería.’ La gente ni siquiera puede concebir la idea de que los estudiantes no vayan a la escuela.”

La coalición nacional también está buscando estados o comunidades que estén dispuestos a aprobar políticas que apoyen los derechos educativos de los niños inmigrantes.

Un ejemplo es una ley reciente de Connecticut qué garantiza a las familias inmigrantes que los niños tienen derecho a la educación pública y que deberían recibir ciertos servicios de traducción.

Y La Coalición de Illinois pro Derechos de los Inmigrantes y Refugiados ha tenido conversaciones preliminares acerca de pasar una ley estatal con respecto a la decisión Plyler para que sea “sumamente claro” que los estudiantes indocumentados tienen derecho a una educación pública, dijo Fred Sao, abogado senior de políticas de la organización.

Además, la coalición está actuando de forma proactiva sin recurrir a los estatutos.

La organización de Vázquez Baur llevó a cabo entrenamientos acerca de cómo contar su propia historia estos últimos meses para ayudar a sus miembros a hablar de su trabajo con los estudiantes recién llegados. La idea es compartir las experiencias “en el territorio” en los meses previos a las elecciones presidenciales.

“Eso es lo que muchas veces hace cambiar de opinión a la gente,” dijo Vázquez Baur. “Para aquellas personas podrían estar tomando una decisión al votar que podría perjudicar a esta comunidad, contar estas historias y decir ‘Estos son tus vecinos’ — es impactante. Así es básicamente como estamos luchando.”

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es una reportera nacional de educación senior basada en Chicago. Pueden ponerse en contacto con ella: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Undocumented kids have a right to attend public schools. This coalition wants to keep it that way.

2024-07-31T17:15:28+00:00

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A new coalition is on high alert for violations of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that guarantees children the right to a free public education regardless of their immigration status.

Known as Education for All, the campaign is working to counteract anti-immigrant rhetoric and conservative policy proposals seeking to limit the educational rights of undocumented children, which are protected by the 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe.

The campaign, which launched in May, comes as The Heritage Foundation, a think tank with ties to former President Donald Trump, is pushing states to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public school. Doing so, Heritage says, could lead the Supreme Court to reconsider the Plyler ruling.

Supporters of the idea say the costs of educating undocumented children have grown too high and that migrant students are drawing resources from U.S. citizens. Critics argue these policies would deny hundreds of thousands of kids the fundamental right to an education — and send shockwaves through the nation’s economy, social safety net, and criminal justice system.

Lawmakers in at least four states have tried to pass such measures since 2022. Already, some districts have thrown up barriers that prevent newcomers from enrolling, while some school board members have suggested collecting data on students’ immigration status.

“We want to take everything seriously,” said Will Dempster, the vice president of strategic communications for the National Immigration Law Center, which is leading the coalition. “They’re testing the boundaries of what’s possible.”

Three dozen organizations have joined the coalition, including immigrant rights groups, education and legal advocates, and the nation’s two largest teachers unions. Their work spans border states like Arizona and Texas, and states that have enrolled a large share of migrant students in recent years, such as New York, California, Colorado, and Illinois.

Together they will be watchdogging school board meetings, lobbying state lawmakers, educating families about their rights, and making sure school officials understand the Plyler decision. The goal is to “coordinate when things pop up in different states and be ready to mobilize,” Dempster said.

Amid cost concerns, schools support migrant students

The coalition is also pushing back against claims from Trump and other conservative politicians about newly arrived migrant children.

“They’re taking over our schools,” Trump said last month during the presidential debate. Earlier this year, Trump falsely claimed that migrant children had displaced other students in New York City schools, though the district actually has empty seats it’s trying to fill.

Similarly, in June, U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican, held an education hearing titled “The Consequences of Biden’s Border Chaos for K-12 Schools” where he spoke about the “staggering” cost of educating undocumented kids.

“Educating illegal immigrant children requires substantial resources, altering the learning environment for all students,” Bean said. “Overcrowded classrooms, the need for new facilities, and strained student-to-teacher ratios are just some of the challenges.”

He pointed to Colorado giving schools an extra $24 million this year to help offset the costs of educating newcomer students, and a pair of schools in Austin, Texas where teachers taught classes in hallways after a big uptick in refugee students.

Some schools have struggled to meet the needs of newly arrived immigrant students. That’s often because they do not have enough bilingual staff or receive limited funding to educate immigrant students.

In 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the Plyler ruling should be revisited “because the expenses are extraordinary” and he called on the federal government to pay states’ costs. A lawmaker in his state tried to bar undocumented children from enrolling in public schools unless the federal government did just that, but the bill didn’t go anywhere.

Similar proposals were floated in Utah, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, but none passed — suggesting the idea remains controversial, even among conservatives.

Newly arrived students’ needs aren’t unique. Many U.S.-born children also need language support, trauma-informed counseling, or help catching up after interrupted schooling. And some schools have stepped up by training staff to provide additional mental health support or adding summer programs to help kids adjust to life in the U.S.

The coalition plans to highlight the many benefits immigrant students can bring to their classmates and school communities, too.

“Part of what we can do is show that immigrant students can succeed when given the right supports,” said Liza Schwartzwald, the director of economic justice and family empowerment at the New York Immigration Coalition, which belongs to Education for All. “These are not kids that are throwing our education system into turmoil.”

Enrollment barriers, data collection could violate student rights

Still, even without official state restrictions, undocumented children commonly face barriers to school enrollment, including in Democratic-led states.

Last summer, New York’s attorney general said the state had learned of school policies that made it “difficult or impossible” for undocumented students to enroll — likely in violation of state or federal protections. Some districts required students or their parents to provide voter registration cards, which aren’t available to non-citizens, or threatened to make home visits if a student couldn’t establish residency with a lease, which can be difficult for undocumented families to obtain.
Throughout New York City, newly arrived immigrant youth have encountered wait lists or been told there are no spots as they sought to enroll in school, City Limits reported. On the flip side, some newcomer high schoolers have been pressured to leave their school when they needed more support to graduate.
In Massachusetts, some districts said they didn’t plan to enroll migrant children who were housed in temporary shelters, until the state told them they had to.
Hundreds of schools in dozens of states recently told The 74 they wouldn’t admit a 19-year-old Venezuelan student with limited English skills, even though he was legally entitled to enroll.

Coalition members are alert to these and other examples of schools potentially violating the rights laid out in Plyler.

Alejandra Vázquez Baur, who directs the National Newcomer Network, which includes 250 teachers, school leaders, community advocates, and researchers from across the country, said members share possible infringements when they meet every other month.

The National Newcomer Network has led storytelling training to help teachers, school leaders, and others talk about their work with immigrant children.

Her organization has filed federal civil rights complaints on behalf of students or helped families file their own, though she knows that process is often too slow to help a child before they decide to enroll elsewhere or not to enroll in school at all.

Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said her organization is urging its 80 member organizations to “be alert” for potential Plyler violations. That includes working with partners that organize high schoolers to see if they’ve heard about any cases of undocumented kids not being able to register for school.

They are keeping their eye on Sarasota County Schools after Bridget Ziegler, a school board member and a co-founder of the conservative political group Moms for Liberty, raised questions about whether the district could collect data on students’ immigration status.

“I’ve heard both from staff and members of the community in general about a concern about being able to respond to the language barriers, but also it kind of becoming more of a burden than usual,” she said at a board meeting in March. “Is that just the perception? Is there a way to evaluate that?”

The Heritage Foundation plan calls on schools to collect data on students’ immigration status as a way to conduct cost analyses. Schools typically do not do this because it can scare families and cause them not to send their children to school, in violation of Plyler.

Undocumented students’ supporters work to convince voters

The Florida Immigrant Coalition is also reaching out to teachers unions and school board members to raise awareness about this issue, and meeting with state lawmakers to try and secure pledges that they would not support legislation that could harm immigrant students.

“We realize that there is a lot of education that needs to be done,” Petit said. “The reaction that we’re getting is ‘No, wow, that wouldn’t happen.’ Some people can’t even imagine the idea of kids not going to school.”

The national coalition is also looking for states or communities that would be willing to pass policies that support the educational rights of immigrant children.

One example is a recent Connecticut law that ensures immigrant families know their kids are entitled to a public education and that they should receive certain translation services.

And the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has had preliminary conversations about putting the Plyler decision into state law to make it “super clear” that undocumented children are entitled to a public education, said Fred Tsao, the organization’s senior policy counsel.

There are other ways the coalition is being proactive that don’t involve statutes.

Vázquez Baur’s organization has been conducting storytelling training over the last few months to help its members talk about their work with newcomer students. They plan to share those “on-the-ground” experiences in the lead-up to the presidential election.

“That is often what changes minds,” Vázquez Baur said. “For folks who might be making a voting decision that would otherwise harm this community, telling those stories and saying ‘Those are your neighbors’ — that is impactful. That is primarily how we’re going to be pushing back.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Kamala Harris backs teachers unions and LGBTQ rights, blasts book bans in AFT speech

2024-07-25T19:17:35+00:00

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In one of her first speeches since becoming the likely Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris delivered a fiery call to teachers and other union members to back her vision for America’s future.

That includes teaching the painful parts of U.S. history, protecting LGBTQ students and school staff from discrimination, and ensuring teachers aren’t pushed out of the profession by crippling student loan debt, she said.

“While you teach students about our nation’s past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation’s true and full history,” Harris told members of the American Federation of Teachers on Thursday at the union’s national convention in Houston. “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.”

The AFT, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, was the first union to endorse Harris earlier this week, the vice president noted. The union represents some 1.8 million members, including teachers, school staff, college faculty, nurses, and other health care workers.

In her speech, Harris emphasized the importance of unions — noteworthy at a time when some cast teachers unions as working in opposition to students and families — and pledged to support them. She cited her experience leading a White House task force that helps workers organize and bargain collectively.

Harris also referred to herself as a “proud product of public education” and highlighted her first grade teacher, Frances Wilson, who encouraged her and later attended her law school graduation.

“I know who you are,” Harris said. “This work is personal, and it is professional, and it is so critically important. It is because of Mrs. Wilson and so many teachers like her that I stand before you.”

Harris spent much of her speech drawing contrasts between her agenda and the platform of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee seeking a second term as president. She also criticized Project 2025, a plan developed by former Trump officials that observers believe will influence Trump’s policy-making if he wins.

Harris characterized Project 2025 as “a plan to return America to a dark past.” She noted that it calls for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, ending student loan forgiveness for public sector workers like teachers, and getting rid of Head Start, which provides early education to some 800,000 children from low-income families.

“Randi, can you believe they put that thing in writing?” Harris said to AFT President Randi Weingarten. Project 2025, Harris also noted, “would take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children.”

Harris emphasized the Biden administration’s work to forgive teachers’ student loan debt. She pointed to the example of Tonya Cabeza, a Philadelphia teacher who considered leaving the profession because she still had $40,000 in loan debt after making payments for 20 years. Her debt was forgiven under an administration policy last year.

Harris also drew attention to the wave of laws that have limited how teachers can talk about sexual orientation and gender identity in their classrooms. In 2004, Harris noted, she was one of the first officials in the country to officiate same-sex marriages.

“It pains me so,” she said, “to think 20 years later, that there are some young teachers in their twenties who are afraid to put up a photograph of themselves and their partner for fear they could lose their job.”

The Biden administration issued new rules earlier this year that say students and staff are protected from discrimination at school based on their sexual orientation and gender identity under Title IX, the federal civil rights law.

Republican lawmakers and officials have strongly opposed this interpretation and many are suing the Biden administration to block the new rules from taking effect. Those rules are on hold in at least 15 states.

In her first presidential campaign over four years ago, Harris said she would increase staff and funding to enforce the civil rights of LGBTQ students, and if elected president, she would likely be in the position of defending the new Title IX rules from any ongoing or future challenges.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

As Kamala Harris ascends to Democratic presidential frontrunner, get to know her education record

2024-07-25T14:33:43+00:00

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Vice President Kamala Harris quickly emerged as the most likely Democratic nominee for president, securing dozens of endorsements within hours of President Joe Biden announcing he would end his reelection campaign.

If Harris becomes the nominee, she’ll face a Republican opponent in former President Donald Trump who has promised to cut federal funding for schools that teach “inappropriate” lessons on race, gender, and politics, and to roll back protections for gay and transgender students.

While the economy, immigration, and foreign policy have received far more attention this election cycle, the parties differ sharply on education.

Harris almost immediately secured the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union. The National Education Association followed on Tuesday, with President Becky Pringle posting on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that “Kamala has delivered for students & educators.”

Here’s what we know about Harris’ education record so far:

Harris has backed Title I, Head Start funding increases

Like Biden, Harris has called for “significant” increases to Title I, the federal program that sends money to schools serving higher shares of students from low-income families. As a presidential candidate in the last election, she also called for more funding for Head Start, which provides federally subsidized preschool to low-income children.

Biden has tried several times to pass a budget that would more than double Title I. But Congressional Republicans have blocked those proposals and pushed for dramatic cuts to the program.

That puts Harris at odds with Trump, whose education platform includes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving states full control over the nation’s educational programming. Project 2025, a blueprint developed by several former Trump officials that would likely inform policy under a second Trump administration, calls for phasing out Title I and eliminating Head Start.

Harris could reenergize school desegregation efforts

One of the most striking moments during the Democratic presidential debates in 2019 came when Harris challenged Biden about his record on school desegregation. Biden had opposed busing children to attend different schools under a court order, and Harris raised her personal experience as a child who took part in a voluntary integration program in Berkeley Public Schools.

“There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said in 2019. “And that little girl was me.”

Given that, Harris could be an advocate for school desegregation and racial equity initiatives, though she would face stiff opposition. Congressional Republicans and Republican-controlled state legislatures have fiercely opposed diversity and equity efforts in K-12 schools and colleges in recent years.

Harris has championed the idea of giving school districts grants to fund voluntary desegregation efforts. But the Biden administration struggled to secure modest funding for a similar effort. The administration quietly launched a scaled-back version last year.

Trump, meanwhile, defunded a similar school desegregation grant program shortly after taking office, saying the initiative was “an unwise use of tax dollars.”

Harris would bring civil rights experience to Title IX

As a candidate, Harris pointed to her experience enforcing children’s civil rights as California’s attorney general, and said she would bring that to bear as president.

In 2019, she called for adding staff to the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination, and protect LGBTQ students from discrimination and harassment at school.

If elected, Kamala Harris' administration would likely have to defend new Title IX rules about sex-based discrimination from legal challenges and Republican opposition.

The Biden administration recently issued new rules that say Title IX protects students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity — an interpretation that’s drawn intense opposition from Republican officials. More than two dozen states are suing the Biden administration to block those rules, which are temporarily on hold in at least 15 of them, according to a tracker compiled by Education Week.

If elected, her administration would likely be in the position of defending those Title IX rules against any ongoing or future challenges — and may be tasked with finalizing rules about the rights of trans athletes to play on certain school teams. The Biden administration has indefinitely delayed releasing those.

Teachers would likely have a friend in Harris

Harris made raising teacher pay a centerpiece of her education platform when she was a presidential candidate. She proposed closing the pay gap between teachers and other professions that require a college degree, a move that would have meant an average raise of $13,500 a year at the time and would have cost an estimated $315 billion over 10 years. Such a proposal would have represented a major expansion of the federal role in education.

Since then, many states and districts have raised teacher pay, but those raises often have not kept pace with inflation. A recent RAND report found that in addition to earning less than their peers in other professions, teachers are also more likely to say that their pay feels inadequate. It’s among the reasons teachers cite for leaving the profession — especially Black teachers, who are already underrepresented in American classrooms.

Harris also called for a $2.5 billion investment in teacher preparation programs at historically Black colleges and universities — or HBCUs — in a bid to diversify the teaching profession. She also supported more investment in teacher residencies and “grow your own” programs, which generally provide financial support and mentoring for teachers aides, substitute teachers, and others who live in communities of color.

Roughly 80% of public school teachers are white, compared with only about half of students. Studies find that students of color taught by teachers of color are more likely to be referred to gifted programs and go to college.

Harris backed plans for free college

Harris has supported proposals to make two-year colleges free for most students and to make four-year colleges free for many students from lower- and middle-income families as both a senator and a presidential candidate.

From Votebeat: What's next in the process to replace Joe Biden?

Biden came into office with his own plans to make two years of college free for many students, but those policies failed to advance in a challenging political environment. Instead, the Biden administration pushed to expand Pell grants that reduce college costs for many students from low-income backgrounds. The bungled rollout of a new federal financial aid form means fewer students may benefit from those changes.

Public service workers’ loan forgiveness a Harris priority

As a prosecutor in California, Harris backed debt forgiveness for students defrauded by for-profit colleges. As a presidential candidate, her debt forgiveness plan was narrower than those from progressives such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

But during internal Biden administration debates, Harris was reportedly an advocate for more generous relief. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Biden’s initial student debt forgiveness plan, the administration pursued a variety of strategies that have wiped out an estimated $168 billion in debt for more than 4 million borrowers, with a focus on public service workers such as teachers.

But Republicans have challenged portions of Biden’s plans in court, most recently securing an injunction against the Saving on a Valuable Education income-based repayment plan.

Harris seems likely to continue to pursue debt forgiveness and defend those policies against challenges. But it’s unclear how much political or legal room there is to enact broader loan forgiveness.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that both NEA and AFT have endorsed Kamala Harris for president.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

School desegregation is hard to tackle at the federal level. Advocates say states can still do a lot.

2024-07-25T04:01:00+00:00

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Fifty years ago, the landmark Supreme Court decision Milliken v. Bradley made it exceedingly difficult to desegregate schools across district lines through the federal court system.

Subsequent court rulings and recent backlash to racial equity initiatives have only made the landscape more challenging.

But a report issued Thursday by Brown’s Promise, a group that advocates for school integration, says states can still do a lot to address segregation and school funding inequities — and offers a roadmap for officials and advocates to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

“We are, across the country, too comfortable right now with the idea that segregation in our schools is just a fact of life and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Ary Amerikaner, the co-founder and executive director of Brown’s Promise, a year-old initiative that’s housed at the Southern Education Foundation. “There’s a lot of other pathways to make forward progress.”

That call comes on the heels of the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruling that held segregated schools are unconstitutional. Schools are less segregated today than they were 60 years ago. But over the last three decades, many have resegregated, especially as courts have released districts from desegregation orders and school choice policies have given parents more control over where they send their kids.

The share of intensely segregated schools — where 90% to 100% of students are kids of color — has nearly tripled to 20% over the last 30 years, according to recent research released by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. Hyper-segregated schools also have higher poverty levels — a kind of “double segregation” that translates to worse educational outcomes for kids.

To address that, Brown’s Promise is advocating a two-pronged approach: Filing lawsuits in state court — especially in places where the state constitution guarantees children certain educational rights — and changing state policy.

School segregation lawsuits are working their way through the courts in both Minnesota and New Jersey. And while Brown’s Promise is not involved in those cases, the group is watching for lessons from the litigation that could apply to other states.

The group’s state policy agenda includes what it describes as “inspiring yet imperfect” examples of recent and historic desegregation efforts:

In 2015, Mississippi combined a racially segregated and under-resourced district with a neighboring district that was more affluent and diverse. Most school segregation exists across district lines rather than within school districts, research has found, and what happened in Mississippi worked because the merger saved money and helped improve the quality of education for kids across the consolidated district.
Nebraska lawmakers created a regional structure that allowed 11 school districts in the Omaha area to share their tax dollars to provide more funding to disadvantaged kids. The effort ended in 2016 after around seven years in operation, but Brown’s Promise says it can serve as a model for others.
State grants, such as those offered in New York, can help school districts plan and carry out integration efforts.

Other ideas are lighter lifts designed to spur more conversation and awareness, such as publishing data related to school segregation and per-student spending on state report cards.

The report also lays out ways that states can avoid some of the mistakes of past school integration efforts. In recent years, there’s been a greater focus on the ways school desegregation plans often put higher burdens on Black families and other families of color.

To Amerikaner, those mistakes include the layoffs and firing of many talented Black teachers when schools merged, and the use of academic-tracking policies that tend to create classrooms starkly divided by race, even when a school is supposed to be integrated.

Part of the work now, she said, is paying attention to the “actual student experience in a school and the ability of a student to feel like a real part of their school community.” That could mean making sure kids feel comfortable participating in extracurricular activities or that families feel welcome to attend school events.

The group acknowledges how challenging and politically polarizing this work can be.

But its leaders point to the results of a poll they commissioned earlier this year that found most Americans are supportive of school integration — especially if it’s paired with providing more resources to districts that serve higher-need students.

That sentiment has been echoed as the group has met with families and advocates across the country, including in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Georgia.

“That feels like what is most important to us,” Amerikaner said. “This is long-term, multi-generational work.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Retrasos en los EBT de verano han dejado a familias esperando para recibir beneficios cruciales de comida

2024-07-23T23:48:48+00:00

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Millones de niños en seis estados que son elegibles para los beneficios de comida de verano respaldados por el gobierno federal no los recibirán hasta justo antes de que empiece la escuela. Y en Delaware, Montana, y Nevada, medio millón de niños no los recibirán hasta que empiece el nuevo año escolar.

El EBT de verano, también conocido como SUN Bucks, brinda a las familias con bajos recursos $120 por cada niño en edad escolar para comprar alimentos durante el verano. Es un ejemplo inusual de un programa de la época de la pandemia que el congreso hizo permanente, y la mayoría de los estados lo están ofreciendo por primera vez este año.

Pero el programa ha sido perjudicado por retrasos y problemas para lanzarlo. Algunos estados han identificado cientos de miles de niños más que son elegibles para el EBT de verano de lo que esperaban en un principio. Esto ha acentuado la necesidad generalizada de asistencia alimenticia y reforzará el impacto del programa. Pero también es complicado poner en marcha el programa. Estos problemas han dejado a familias que inicialmente se les había dicho que la ayuda llegaría antes luchando para llegar a fin de mes.

Muchos estados y escuelas hicieron tan poco para promocionar el EBT de verano que las familias no tienen ni idea de cuándo o cómo recibirán sus beneficios.

“Esto daña a familias que contaban con que el beneficio sea depositado para una fecha determinada, y ahora tienen que esperar varias semanas o meses,” dijo Kelsey Boone, que monitorea el lanzamiento del EBT de verano para la organización sin ánimo de lucro Centro de Investigación y Acción Alimentaria.

Sin embargo, muchos estados pudieron iniciar sus programas a tiempo. Los funcionarios dicen que la ayuda que ha llegado a las familias está marcando una diferencia, especialmente cuando los precios de los alimentos siguen estando altos. Las familias tienen cuatro meses para gastar los beneficios, incluso si llegan retrasados.

Ha habido “una respuesta muy numerosa a este programa,” dijo Boone. “Realmente muestra lo mucho que tantas familias necesitan este programa.”

Los tres niños de Felina Romero desayunan y almuerzan gratis en la escuela. Pero durante el verano, los beneficios de comida se acaban a mediados de mes. El cereal y el jugo que ella consigue del banco de alimentos generalmente duran sólo unos días.

La mamá de Colorado había planeado usar su EBT de verano para comprar agua embotellada y snacks para ayudar a que sus niños estén saciados.

Pero tras semanas de llamadas a la línea de ayuda de su estado — “Se ha retrasado, se ha retrasado,” oía que le decían repetidamente — Romero recientemente se enteró que hay familias que no recibirán sus beneficios hasta agosto, cuando muchas escuelas ya retoman sus clases.

“Si nos lo hubieran dado durante el verano,” ella dijo, “nos habría ayudado tanto.”

El EBT de verano se originó en la ayuda durante la pandemia

Los defensores de la lucha contra el hambre por mucho tiempo han considerado el verano una de las épocas más difíciles para llegar a los niños.

Muchas escuelas sirven comidas gratuitas en el verano. Pero a los padres les cuesta llegar a ellas, porque están muy lejos o están abiertas sólo durante horas laborales. Las familias que dependen de los bancos de alimentos dicen que a menudo no encuentran los productos básicos que sus niños necesitan, como leche. Y frecuentemente, la comida está casi vencida.

El EBT de verano permite a las familias hacer las compras por cuenta propia — y forma parte de una tendencia de la época de la pandemia para proporcionar a las familias ayuda más directa.

“Los padres y sus familias son los únicos que saben que es lo mejor para ellos y para sus hijos — lo que realmente van a comer, lo que son capaces de comer,” dijo Hope Lane-Gaven, que dirige políticas de nutrición y los programas para la Asociación de Bancos de Comida de Ohio, el cual está ayudando a pasar la voz acerca del EBT de verano. “La mayor parte de los bancos de comida no pueden adaptar una caja a un niño que no consume gluten.”

El EBT de la pandemia, que fue lanzado cuando las escuelas estaban cerradas, ayudó a establecer el trabajo preliminar. Los estados notaron que a las familias les gustaba el programa, y ayudaba a que las agencias establecieran nuevos sistemas que ahora están ajustando para el EBT de verano.

Treinta y siete estados se inscribieron para poner en marcha el EBT de verano este año, mientras que los otros 13 estados optaron por no hacerlo. Algunos gobernadores republicanos se opusieron a proporcionar a las familias más asistencia gubernamental. Otros estados dijeron que no tenían ni los fondos ni la capacidad de poner en pie un nuevo programa en un par de meses.

Por qué los beneficios del EBT de verano están llegando tarde

Se suponía que los estados que decidieron participar debían empezar a distribuir los beneficios cuando la mayor parte de las escuelas terminaban las clases y empezaban las vacaciones de verano. Pero muchos estados señalaron complicaciones que hicieron que los beneficios no se distribuyeran a tiempo.

En Montana, un contratista externo desistió a último momento. En Nevada, la legislatura no aprobó la financiación para los costos administrativos hasta junio. En Pennsylvania e Illinois, los funcionarios dijeron que se necesitó tiempo para desarrollar nuevos sistemas, y que los beneficios se distribuirán más temprano el año que viene.

Colorado tuvo que contratar a un equipo nuevo e identificar a niños que automáticamente cumplían con los requisitos para el EBT de verano debido a su participación en otros programas, como el Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria y el programa de comidas escolares gratuitas y a precio reducido.

Colorado terminó identificando a 550.000 niños que cumplían con los requisitos para el EBT de verano — unos sorprendentes 190.000 más de los que el estado había calculado inicialmente.

Un ejemplo de la tarjeta del EBT de verano que las familias de Colorado recibirán por correo.

Fue un “problema muy afortunado,” dijo Laura Kriebel, que supervisa el programa para la Oficina de Seguridad Económica de Colorado, pero también un “gran esfuerzo.”

Por ejemplo, el estado tuvo que trabajar con las escuelas para obtener domicilios actualizados y llevar a cabo chequeos de datos para asegurarse de que no enviaran beneficios duplicados.

También tuvo que establecer un proceso de aplicación para las familias que no cumplían los requisitos automáticamente por medio de otros programas. Esto representó un gran cambio con respecto a la EBT de la pandemia, la cual no tenía una aplicación.

El estado empezó a enviar cartas la semana pasada informando a las familias si cumplían los requisitos. Las tarjetas de beneficios podrían llegar a fin de mes. Pero es posible que las familias tal vez no las reciban hasta mediados de agosto, cuando muchos estudiantes ya habrán vuelto a la escuela.

“Me doy cuenta de lo difícil que es la pregunta de Colorado de: ¿A dónde están mis beneficios?” dijo Kriebel. “Pero solo estamos intentando ser considerados ya que el primer año del programa tiene muchos desafíos para distribuir los beneficios correctamente.”

Cómo algunos estados han puesto en marcha el de EBT de verano correctamente

Carolina del Norte es uno de alrededor doce estados que ha exitosamente distribuido beneficios a principios del verano. El estado identificó unos 266.000 niños elegibles adicionales, sin embargo distribuyó los beneficios a mediados de junio.

Madhu Vulimiri, subdirectora del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Carolina del Norte, atribuye la capacidad del estado a cumplir los plazos a la “comunicación constante” entre el estado y el emisor de beneficios. Fallos en la comunicación contribuyeron a retrasos en otros ámbitos.

Las relaciones establecidas durante el EBT de la pandemia con la agencia de educación de Carolina del Norte y la Banda del Este de Indios Cherokee ayudaron a que los datos de los estudiantes llegaran rápidamente a los Servicios de Salud y Humanos.

Y fundamentalmente, Carolina del Norte dio el paso adicional de identificar a familias que probablemente cumplirían los requisitos pero necesitaban llenar papeles. Luego, el estado les envió invitaciones para aplicar por mensaje de texto, email, y por teléfono en junio — algo que otros estados no hicieron.

“Hemos visto una buena respuesta” dijo Vulimiri. “Dado que es el primer año, nosotros queríamos asegurarnos de que se corriera la voz e intentar minimizar las chances de haber salteado a alguien.”

En Arizona, la planificación inicial ayudó al estado a proporcionar beneficios para aquellas familias que automáticamente cumplían los requisitos mediante el Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria (SNAP, por sus siglas en inglés) u otros programas a comienzos de junio. Para los niños que necesitaban una nueva tarjeta, el estado también decidió agrupar los beneficios por familia, lo cual aceleró los tiempos de envío.

“Si se demora demasiado tiempo, antes de que te des cuenta, el verano llega y nadie se compromete a llevar a cabo el programa,” dijo Ernest Baca, un administrador adjunto del Departamento de Seguridad Económica de Arizona.

Ahora, una gran meta es asegurarse que las familias sepan que sólo tienen 122 días para gastar los beneficios de EBT de verano una vez que los reciben — un plazo más corto que otros tipos de ayuda alimenticia.

Eso es especialmente importante después de que cientos de millones de dólares en ayuda del EBT de la pandemia se vencieron sin ser gastados, según datos recopilados por el especialista en educación David Rubel. Frecuentemente esto fue porque las familias nunca habían recibido sus tarjetas, o habían tenido problemas para utilizarlas.

Para evitar esa situación, Colorado estableció un sistema para ver cuales familias todavía tienen que gastar su ayuda y enviará recordatorios antes de que se venza el EBT de verano, dijo Kriebel.

En el futuro, funcionarios del país entero dicen que sus estados proyectan emitir los beneficios antes. El Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos anunció recientemente que otorgaría $100 millones en subvenciones para ayudar a los estados y a las naciones tribales a modernizar sus sistemas tecnológicos para que el EBT de verano funcione de manera más eficaz.

Las familias que aún esperan sus beneficios dicen que tienen la esperanza que los estados puedan hacerlo mejor en el futuro.

Esto incluye a Stephanie Hall en Nuevo México. Su estado no tiene previsto enviar los beneficios de EBT de verano hasta principios de agosto — justo antes de que la mayor parte de los niños de Nuevo México vuelvan a la escuela. La ayuda hubiera sido especialmente útil para comprar snacks para su hija de 15 años, que es pre-diabética y necesita comer cada varias horas para regular su nivel de azúcar en la sangre.

“En realidad estoy luchando para mantener a mi familia,” dijo Hall. “Nos decepcionaron.”

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación basada en Chicago. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella enviando un correo electrónico al: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Flavia Melia Franco

Bipartisan coalition issues call to cut chronic absenteeism in half as kids continue to miss school

2024-07-18T22:26:36+00:00

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From poor reading skills to chaotic classrooms, the stubbornly high rate at which kids are absent from school makes it harder to solve every other problem in education. That’s made improving attendance a rare point of bipartisan agreement.

A new coalition announced a campaign on Wednesday calling on schools to cut their chronic absenteeism rates in half from the 2021-22 school year, when rates peaked across the country, by the 2026-27 school year.

The goal is to reverse what happened during the pandemic, when the share of kids who miss a lot of school nearly doubled.

As part of the new campaign, the coalition plans to highlight examples of states and school districts that have successfully tackled absenteeism challenges.

While many schools have worked to curb chronic absenteeism — typically defined as when kids miss 10% or more of their school year, or around 18 days — the problem has persisted and is pervasive. Setting aggressive goals and making concrete plans to achieve them is the only way to turn that around, the coalition said.

It could also be the key to addressing pandemic learning loss.

Kids of different achievement levels, of every race, in every state, in every kind of community, have had higher rates of absenteeism in recent years — whether their schools closed for a long time or not.

“That kind of churn just makes everything more difficult,” said Hedy Chang, the executive director of Attendance Works, referring to everything from establishing classroom routines to keeping lesson plans on track. “For me, that actually fuels the urgency of this issue.”

The trio leading the coalition — which held a Washington, D.C. event where Chang and others kicked off the campaign — is an unlikely one. It’s made up of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank; The Education Trust, a leading civil rights group; and Attendance Works, a nonprofit with a long history of working on absenteeism issues.

“This is the real threat that we’re looking at now: That chronic absenteeism doesn’t go back down, that it becomes a new normal,” said Nat Malkus, the deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. “It is a big deal, and we’re going to need concerted effort to counter it.”

Denise Forte, who heads The Education Trust, said the idea to join forces came to her after she and Malkus voiced similar concerns about student absenteeism to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in January.

“I thought to myself: This is a unique opportunity with two organizations and two people that don’t always think alike on many things, but on this one we could come together,” Forte said.

Virginia and Rhode Island education officials who joined the event said their states had seen close links between who was chronically absent and who was struggling in school.

Lisa Coons, Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, said when her staff combed through state test score data last year to understand why they weren’t seeing more learning loss recovery, one consistent factor stood out. In grades 3-8, if a student was chronically absent, they scored 18% lower in reading on average, and 25% lower in mathematics.

“Kiddos don’t know the work, they don’t want to come to school, they feel like they’re behind, so they get further behind,” Coons said. “We have to break that cycle.”

Schools across the country have tried launching new attendance-tracking systems, hiring people to knock on family’s doors, and giving away prizes to help re-engage students. And while many states have reduced their chronic absenteeism rates recently, they generally remain higher than before the pandemic.

Ongoing work to reduce chronic absenteeism will look different across the country, Chang said, especially as the COVID relief dollars that many school districts had relied on to pay for their attendance campaigns dry up at the start of the new school year.

“The challenge of chronic absence is there are multiple issues and reasons that cause kids to be chronically absent,” she said. “You have to use your local understanding from kids, families, and your data to really figure out what’s going to make the biggest difference in your community.”

The coalition highlighted the work happening in Rhode Island, which brought down its chronic absenteeism rate by 5 percentage points during the 2022-23 school year. There, state officials put up “We miss you” billboards to catch students’ attention, and assembled a public dashboard that tracks the daily attendance rate for schools across the state.

Officials use it to monitor how attendance is going in middle schools, in high schools, for kids who’ve been chronically absent for three years, and for kids who started to be absent a lot when they were young, said Angélica Infante-Green, the state’s education commissioner.

A parent working group helps inform the state’s attendance initiatives, whether that’s figuring out which bodegas and laundromats should hang information flyers, or recommending trusted community members who can knock on families’ doors.

“This is everyone’s responsibility,” she said.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Summer EBT delays have left families waiting weeks or months for crucial food benefits

2024-07-17T18:23:17+00:00

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Millions of children in six states won’t get federally backed summer food benefits they’re eligible for until just before school starts. And in Delaware, Montana, and Nevada, half a million kids won’t get them until the new school year begins.

Summer EBT, also known as SUN Bucks, provides low-income families with $120 per school-age child to buy groceries over the summer. It’s a rare example of a pandemic-era program that Congress made permanent, and most states are offering it for the first time this year.

But delays and start-up challenges have dogged the program. Some states have identified hundreds of thousands more children who are eligible for Summer EBT than they initially expected. That’s underscored the widespread need for food assistance and will bolster the program’s impact. But it’s also complicated getting the program off the ground. Such problems have left families who were initially told the aid would arrive sooner scrambling to make ends meet.

Many states and schools did so little to publicize Summer EBT that families have no idea when or how their benefits will arrive.

“This hurts families who were counting on the benefit to be deposited by a certain date, and now they have to wait several weeks or months,” said Kelsey Boone, who’s monitoring the Summer EBT rollout for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center.

Still, many states did manage to get their programs up and running on time. Officials there say the aid that’s reached families is making a difference, especially at a time when food prices remain high. Families will have four months to spend the benefits, even if it arrives late.

There’s been “a very massive response to this program,” Boone said. “It really just shows how much this program is needed by so many families.”

Felina Romero’s three kids eat breakfast and lunch for free at school. But during the summer, her food benefits often run out mid-month. The cereal and juice she gets from food pantries often last just a few days.

The Colorado mom had planned to use Summer EBT to buy bottled water and snacks to help her kids stay full.

But after weeks of calls to her state’s helpline — “It’s delayed, it’s delayed,” she kept hearing — Romero recently found out that families may not get their benefits until August, when many schools are back in session.

“If they would have gave us that during the summer,” she said, “it would have helped us so much.”

Summer EBT has roots in pandemic aid

Anti-hunger advocates have long considered summer one of the toughest times to reach children.

Many schools serve free summer meals. But parents often struggle to get to them, either because they’re far away or open only during work hours. Families who rely on food banks say they often can’t find staples their kids need, like milk. And often, the food is nearly expired.

Summer EBT allows families to shop for themselves — part of a pandemic-era trend to provide families with more direct aid.

“Only parents and families know what’s best for themselves and their children — what they’re actually going to eat, what they’re capable of eating,” said Hope Lane-Gavin, who directs nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which is helping get the word out about Summer EBT. “Most food pantries can’t really tailor a box to a gluten-free kid.”

Pandemic EBT, which launched when schools were closed, helped lay the groundwork. States found that families liked that program, and it helped agencies set up new systems they’re now tweaking for Summer EBT.

Thirty-seven states signed up to run Summer EBT this year, while the other 13 opted out. Some Republican governors objected to providing families with more government assistance. Other states said they didn’t have the funds or capacity to stand up a new program in a few months’ time.

Why Summer EBT benefits are arriving late

States that chose to participate were supposed to start distributing benefits around the time that most schools let out for summer break. But many states reported a number of complications that led to benefits not going out on time.

In Montana, a third-party contractor backed out at the last minute. In Nevada, the legislature didn’t approve funding for administrative costs until June. In Pennsylvania and Illinois, officials said it took time to develop new systems, and benefits will go out earlier next year.

Colorado had to hire a new team and identify kids who automatically qualified for Summer EBT through their participation in other programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the free and reduced-price school meal program.

Colorado ended up identifying 550,000 children who qualified for Summer EBT — a whopping 190,000 more than the state initially estimated.

An example of the Summer EBT card that Colorado families will get in the mail.

It was a “very happy problem,” said Laura Kriebel, who’s overseeing the program for the Colorado Office of Economic Security, but also a “pretty big lift.”

For example, the state had to work with schools to get up-to-date mailing addresses and run data checks to make sure it didn’t mail out duplicate benefits.

It also had to set up an application process for families who didn’t automatically qualify through other programs. That represented a big change from Pandemic EBT, which had no application.

The state started sending out letters to let families know if they were eligible last week. Benefit cards could arrive later this month. But families may not get them until later in August, when many students are already back in school.

“I realize how tough it is to get the question mark from Colorado of: Where are my benefits?” Kriebel said. “But we are just trying to be thoughtful about this since this first program year does have a lot of challenges with getting the benefits out the door accurately.”

How some states rolled out Summer EBT smoothly

North Carolina is one of around a dozen states that successfully distributed benefits earlier in the summer. The state identified an additional 266,000 eligible children, but still got benefits out in mid-June.

Madhu Vulimiri, a deputy director at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, attributes the state’s ability to stick to its timeline to the “constant communication” between the state and its benefits issuer. Communication breakdowns contributed to delays elsewhere.

Relationships built through Pandemic EBT with North Carolina’s education agency and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians helped get student data to Health and Human Services quickly.

And crucially, North Carolina took the extra step of identifying families that would likely qualify but needed to fill out paperwork. Then the state sent them invitations to apply via text, email, and phone in June — something other states did not do.

“We’ve been seeing a good response to that,” Vulimiri said. “Given that it’s the first year, we wanted to make sure we got the word out and tried to minimize the chance that we might miss somebody.”

In Arizona, early planning helped the state get benefits to families that automatically qualified through SNAP or another program in early June. For kids that needed a new card, the state also decided to group benefits by family unit, which sped up mailing times.

“If you wait too long, before you know it, the summer is here and no one is committed to doing the program,” said Ernest Baca, a deputy administrator in Arizona’s Department of Economic Security.

One big goal now is to make sure families know they have only 122 days to spend Summer EBT benefits once they receive them — a shorter timeline than other forms of food aid.

That’s especially important after hundreds of millions of dollars in Pandemic EBT aid expired without being spent, according to data compiled by education consultant David Rubel. Often that was because families never got their cards, or had trouble using them.

To head that off, Colorado set up a system to see which families have yet to spend their aid and will send out reminders before Summer EBT expires, Kriebel said.

Going forward, officials across the country say their states plan to issue benefits earlier. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced it would award $100 million in grants to help states and tribal nations make updates to their technology systems to run Summer EBT more smoothly.

Families still waiting for their benefits say they hope states can do better in the future.

That includes Stephanie Hall in New Mexico. Her state isn’t planning to send out Summer EBT benefits until early August — just before most New Mexico kids go back to school. The aid would have been especially useful for buying snacks for her 15-year-old daughter, who is pre-diabetic and needs to eat every few hours to regulate her blood sugar levels.

“I’m actually fighting to sustain my family,” Hall said. “They let us down.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

The pandemic set younger kids back. Their struggle to recover is especially acute, data shows.

2024-07-03T20:46:56+00:00

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While older children are showing encouraging signs of academic recovery, younger children are not making that same progress, and are sometimes falling even further behind, especially in math.

New data released Monday points to the pandemic’s profound and enduring effects on the nation’s youngest public school children, many of whom were not yet in a formal school setting when COVID hit.

“It’s showing that these students — who were either toddlers or maybe in preschool — that their learning was disrupted somehow,” said Kristen Huff, the vice president for research and assessment at Curriculum Associates, which provides math and reading tests to millions of students each year and authored the new report. “It’s striking.”

Researchers and other experts have suggested several potential reasons for this trend. One is that the pandemic disrupted early childhood education and made it harder for many kids to learn foundational skills — gaps that can compound over time. Fewer children enrolled in preschool and kindergarten, and many young children struggled with remote learning. Increased parental stress and screen time may also be factors.

It’s also possible that schools targeted more academic support to older children and teens.

“We can see it as a call to action to make sure that we, as an educational community, are prioritizing those early grades,” Huff said. Those are critical years when children learn their letters and numbers and start reading and counting. “These are all the basics for being able to move along that learning trajectory for the rest of your schooling career.”

A slew of recent reports have examined students’ academic progress post-pandemic. Some researchers found that students in third to eighth grade are making larger-than-usual gains, but that most kids are still behind their pre-pandemic peers. Meanwhile, academic gaps between students from low-income backgrounds and their more affluent peers have widened.

The new Curriculum Associates report, which analyzed results from some 4 million students, is unique in that it includes data points for younger children who haven’t yet taken state tests. Researchers looked at how students who entered kindergarten to fourth grade during the 2021-22 school year performed in math and reading over three years, and compared that against kids who started the same grades just prior to the pandemic.

Children who began kindergarten in the fall of 2021, for example, scored close to what kindergartners did prior to the pandemic in reading. But over the last few years, they’ve fallen behind their counterparts. Kids who started first grade in the fall of 2021 have been consistently behind children who started first grade prior to the pandemic in reading.

In math, meanwhile, students who started kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in the fall of 2021 all started off scoring lower than their counterparts did prior to the pandemic. And they’ve consistently made less progress — putting them “significantly behind” their peers.

Younger children made less progress than their pre-pandemic peers regardless of whether they went to schools in cities, suburbs, or rural communities. And the students who started off further behind had the most difficulty catching up.

Schools may want to consider changing up their academic interventions to focus more on early elementary schoolers, researchers said. It will be especially important to pinpoint exactly which missing skills kids need to master so they can follow along with lessons in their current grade, Huff added. This year, many of the report’s struggling students will be entering third and fourth grade.

In Charleston County, South Carolina, where younger students are outperforming others in their state, especially in math, the district is using a few strategies that officials think have helped.

The district made improving reading instruction a top priority. Officials purchased a new curriculum to better align with the science of reading, gave teachers extensive literacy skills training, and started providing families more information about their kids’ academic performance.

Crucially, said Buffy Roberts, who oversees assessments for Charleston County schools, the district identified groups of kids who were very behind and what it would take to catch them up over several years. Taking a longer view helped teachers break down a big job and ensured kids who needed a lot of help got more support.

“We really helped people understand that if our students were already behind, making typical growth is great, but it’s not going to cut it,” Roberts said. “It was really thinking very strategically and being very targeted about what a child needs in order to get out of that, I hate to call it a hole, but it is a hole.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

COVID aid funded big repairs at high-poverty schools. Will that give academics a boost too?

2024-07-01T10:00:00+00:00

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When the air conditioning broke in a Terrebonne Parish school, it sometimes got so hot that kids fainted or had asthma attacks, and the school had to call an ambulance.

More often, the school sent kids home early. In the best-case scenario, students packed into classrooms with working AC or relocated to the gym or cafeteria to escape the southeast Louisiana heat.

So when the school district got its final federal COVID relief package in 2021, school officials made fixing the AC a top priority. Nearly $23 million — more than 40% of the district’s aid allotment — went to replace the most dire HVAC systems in seven schools.

“It gives us the confidence that we’re not going to have to cancel school, the kids are not going to get sick,” Superintendent Bubba Orgeron said. “When it’s either too hot or too cold … kids are focused on that instead of learning.”

Handed billions of dollars with few strings attached, thousands of school leaders made a similar calculation that year. Across 21 states with publicly available data, schools on average planned to spend 18% of their third and largest COVID aid package on facilities, a Chalkbeat analysis found. That’s nearly as much as they were required to spend on academic recovery.

In Mississippi, schools put nearly 40% of their final aid package toward buildings. In South Dakota, it was more than half.

As the nation takes stock of its return on this massive one-time investment, many school leaders stand behind their decision to go big on facilities, and say this will pay dividends for academics and student engagement. A growing body of research suggests a child’s learning environment affects their test scores and attendance.

But recent research points to a potentially troubling trend: High-poverty districts, like Terrebonne Parish, were more likely to budget a greater share of their final aid package for facilities and operations, especially costly projects like new construction and building repairs. That left them less to spend on academic recovery — even though they educate the kids who’ve had the most academic ground to make up.

Those patterns speak to how the pandemic and months of school closures collided with decades of deferred maintenance and underinvestment in school facilities. Those same high-poverty districts were especially in need of major building upgrades, a 2023 Urban Institute report found.

If districts felt like they had to use this money to fix school buildings even in the face of “a massive learning loss challenge,” said Christopher Brooks, an education researcher who analyzed how thousands of districts planned to spend their third relief package, “I think that’s really telling.”

Why schools spent COVID aid on facilities

U.S. schools got a total of $190 billion in federal pandemic aid. The American Rescue Plan, the last and largest package, provided $123 billion to K-12 schools, and required them to put 20% toward academic interventions for kids.

Federal officials said that money was meant to help reopen schools and make up for interrupted learning. But local leaders had broad discretion to decide what that looked like.

Some schools used the money to hire social workers, expand summer school, and stand up new tutoring programs. But other school leaders gravitated toward improving facilities, worried they could not maintain added staff or programs once the “fiscal cliff” arrived and the aid ran out.

Some politicians and school finance experts encouraged schools to spend pandemic aid on one-time costs. That argument resonated with certain state and local officials.

Amaya Hayden works in the library at Valley High School, part of the New Kensington-Arnold School District. The district spent some of its federal COVID aid on new furniture.

“South Dakotans are practical people,” Mary Stadick Smith, a state education agency spokesperson, wrote in an email explaining why schools there budgeted roughly $183 million to repair buildings and improve air quality. “School leaders made investments that they believed would provide sustained benefits to students and positively impact their schools for the long term — without imperiling budgets with unsustainable spending.”

The lack of guardrails led to some questionable spending on things like relaxation rooms with massage chairs and football fields. But many districts used their biggest pandemic aid package for more pressing facility needs.

A Chalkbeat review of 7,000 district spending plans compiled by the company Burbio, for example, found that more than 3,300 planned to spend some of the aid on HVAC or air filtration. Hundreds of districts budgeted more than half of their final aid package on air quality improvements.

The need was widespread: More than a third of all public schools had HVAC systems requiring repairs when the pandemic hit, a 2020 Government Accountability Office report estimated. Terrebonne Parish’s ACs were so old, for example, that maintenance workers struggled to find replacement parts.

“Everything was hanging on by duct tape,” Orgeron said.

Federal officials pushed schools early on to improve ventilation, and have continued to endorse that spending.

When Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was asked in late May if he thought spending on facilities had taken away from the priorities he laid out earlier this year — tutoring, summer school, and attendance — he said no.

“We are seeing that the dollars were used on what they were supposed to be,” he told Chalkbeat at an Education Writers Association event. Improving air quality so kids could return to in-person learning was part of that equation, he added.

New student desks purchased with pandemic aid have helped facilitate classroom conversations in the New Kensington-Arnold School District.

To some school leaders, investing a lot in certain highly touted academic recovery strategies, such as intensive tutoring, felt risky because they saw other districts struggle to get it right.

But they trusted building repairs would pay off.

Arkansas’ Decatur School District considered hiring tutors with its last COVID aid package. But a committee of staff, students, and parents ultimately decided against it because schools wouldn’t be able to afford their salaries after the money ran out.

The rural district serves 570 students, nearly 80% of whom come from low-income families. It spent almost 70% of its biggest aid package on facilities, including air conditioning, ventilation, windows, and doors.

“Do you want to spend it on technology that’s obsolete in two or three years, or do you want to spend it on staff who, once the money sunsets, you have to let that staff go?” Superintendent Steven Watkins said. “We took that money and looked at the long-term goals.”

High-poverty school districts spent big on buildings

Across Arkansas, higher-poverty districts like Decatur spent COVID aid on facilities more frequently than wealthier districts. They also spent a bigger share of the aid on building needs.

High-poverty districts spent more often and more extensively on facilities in North Carolina and Delaware, too, a Chalkbeat analysis found. Bella DiMarco, a policy analyst at FutureEd, found similar patterns in Mississippi. There, at least 20 districts spent more than 70% of their final aid package on facilities.

Still, it’s hard to draw broader conclusions, since many states don’t make enough data publicly available to analyze patterns.

Some states where districts spent a lot of COVID relief on facilities — such as South Dakota and Mississippi — provide no state money at all to support school infrastructure. In poorer communities, the local tax base may not generate enough money to pay for extensive repairs or new construction.

Climate change has heightened some infrastructure needs. Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish, which borders the Gulf of Mexico, maxed out borrowing to rebuild schools destroyed by increasingly strong hurricanes and to raise up schools on pillars as coastal flooding risks rise.

As a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brooks analyzed how nearly 3,000 school districts planned to spend their final COVID aid package. The sample isn’t nationally representative, but those districts educate 1 in 3 public school students.

The average district planned to spend just over a quarter of its final aid package on facilities and operations. High-poverty districts, smaller districts, and rural districts were more likely to budget a bigger share for facilities.

Spending big on facilities isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Brooks said, but it could exacerbate learning gaps. Pandemic aid helped high-poverty districts make strides in reading and math, recent research found, but those students are still behind their more affluent peers.

The concern is that “higher-wealth districts with more spending on academic learning interventions” may be able “to recover their learning at higher rates,” Brooks said. “Whereas districts that needed this money to meet their infrastructure needs they were never going to meet otherwise — they’re just going to fall farther behind.”

Sara Haas works with Carl Sabol, a ninth grader in the New Kensington-Arnold School District. The district used COVID relief money to improve classroom air ventilation.

One school district’s big bet on its buildings

In Pennsylvania’s New Kensington-Arnold School District, school leaders thought improving their buildings could boost student engagement.

The suburban Pittsburgh district, where nearly every student is from a low-income family, spent nearly 80% of its largest COVID aid package on facilities — essentially every dollar the district was legally allowed to.

Much of that went toward replacing classroom air handlers, which cycle in fresh air. Before those upgrades, Superintendent Chris Sefcheck said, teachers often turned off their lights hoping to pep up sluggish students.

The district also bought new classroom furniture and renovated a planetarium that had been out of use for 30 years. Now it’s an air-conditioned “brain space” where students collaborate on projects and teachers gather for training.

Chris Sefcheck, superintendent of the New Kensington-Arnold School District, has seen how the newly renovated planetarium has spurred student and teacher collaboration.

Eighth grade English language arts teacher Erika Felack-Bucci is glad she no longer has to kick her noisy air vent to “fix” it. She likes her new furniture, too. With high-top tables, no one hides in the back of the room, while movable desks encourage more classroom conversations.

She hopes the improvements send students the message that what happens at school matters.

“For a long time, that was ignored,” she said. “To see that people are putting money into it, and that there is value in this building and what we’re doing, I think is really important for our kids.”

Districts that spent big on facilities say they haven’t neglected academic needs.

Decatur, Arkansas, for example, pulled struggling students out of class for extra help and directed teachers to focus on early elementary schoolers who did not learn certain foundational skills. Terrebonne Parish is relying on small-group instruction time with teachers. Last year, schools also reworked their schedules to give younger kids an extra hour of reading instruction to focus on missing skills.

And New Kensington-Arnold schools used COVID aid to hire three extra school counselors and boost after-school programming.

Still, Felack-Bucci wishes the district had done more to help “the kids that really disappeared during the pandemic.”

Valley High School's new cafeteria, funded in part by COVID relief dollars, has become a place where students like to gather.

Early on, many students tried to learn from phones with cracked screens or had no device at all. When the district ran a hybrid schedule in the fall of 2020, many kids never attended remote classes.

That shows up in Felack-Bucci’s eighth grade classroom. When her class read the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” last year, students needed two weeks to master finding prepositions — twice as long as usual. Many kids couldn’t identify the verb in a sentence.

“There are a lot of skills gaps between the kids,” Felack-Bucci said. “The kids who participated the whole time, they’re great. But the kids who didn’t, they’re much farther behind.”

At one point there was talk of launching an intensive summer program for kids who were most behind. But the district had trouble staffing the program, and it never materialized.

But classrooms are cooler, the new furniture is a hit, and kids are hanging out in the new cafeteria.

Chalkbeat’s Mia Hollie and Kae Petrin contributed data analysis.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

How do teens get into activism? New book shows they can take many paths to fight for change

2024-06-05T17:30:00+00:00

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Sonali Kohli has always liked young adult novels.

They’re fun to read. They don’t shy away from serious, or even traumatic, subjects. And they are deeply rooted in hope.

So when the California-based journalist set out to write “Don’t Wait,” her new nonfiction book out this week, she sought to capture that same sense of “realistic hope” as she shared the true stories of three young women of color fighting for change in America.

Each activist takes on an issue important to her life.

Nalleli Cobo protests the urban oil fields that sicken her and other kids in the Los Angeles neighborhood she grew up in. The campaign she launches with her mother, People Not Pozos, eventually helps shut down the oil well across from her childhood home.

When Kahlila Williams faints from dehydration at her school’s picnic, a school police officer asks if she’s having a drug overdose. The encounter spurs Williams to advocate for the removal of school police from Los Angeles Unified schools. Her work helps persuade the school board to cut the school police department’s budget and reinvest the money to hire counselors, school climate coaches, and other staff to support Black students.

Sonia Patel Banker, meanwhile, grows up in San Francisco with access to arts classes at school and private choir lessons. But when she finds out many California students don’t have access to arts education, despite a state law saying schools are supposed to provide that, she reaches out to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California to work on their funding campaign. Her advocacy helps lead to a successful voter referendum that now requires the state to give schools extra funding for arts education.

Kohli hopes young people who read the book will be able to learn from the three girls and their different approaches to activism.

“I want people to just be able to say they learned something from it, and that it helped them engage in their community in any way — big or small,” Kohli said.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

“Don’t Wait” comes from a speech Kahlila gives to her school board. Why did you choose that as your title?

Part of writing for teens, and writing about these young women, is that I wanted to highlight their voices as much as possible. When I heard Kahlila say it at the school board meeting, I thought: This so deeply embodies what she did. She didn’t wait.

[For] adult activists, you work toward something your whole life and there are setbacks, and you keep going. But when you’re doing activism as a young person, or say in high school, you have four years, right? So there is an urgency.

It also embodies the book’s message to young people: You don’t have to wait until something horrible happens to you or someone you love. You don’t have to wait until you’re an adult. You have agency now. And if you want to effect change in your community, you can do that.

You talked with youth about what they wanted to see in a book like this. What did they share with you?

My audience was always very clear to me. I was writing to teenagers.

Some of it was: We want to see people from our community who are doing this work. [They also] wanted to see advice.

Kids wanted to know: How do you get involved in activism? If you want to change something at school, how do you do that? Is a petition around dress codes enough? What else can I do? What does activism look like? How do I know who to trust?

How did you land on the three movements you focused on in the book?

I wanted to focus on movements where the people who I was following were rooted in California, because that’s the state that I’m from.

Californians, especially Californians in the big liberal cities, see ourselves as these bastions of equity. The reality is inequity is absolutely present. And it’s insidious. So, in the place that we consider the most liberal, the most welcoming, where are the problems, and how are people fighting them here? And how can that be useful to other people around the country?

Defunding school police — that’s a movement that’s really relevant. Environmental justice was very important for me to include in the book, and environmental racism, more specifically, because a lot of the narratives we read and hear about environmental justice work tend to be focused on white folks. Arts education is something that people don’t think about as much when they think about activism, but the reality is, art is so vital to our lives.

It also depended on having a mix of young women who are doing this work, and who are doing different kinds of work, and had different paths to their work.

Sonia says she feels like arts education is being treated like a second-tier social justice issue. What did she want people to know about the value of arts education?

Where that comes up in the book is when it’s being left off of a petition, that is [called] “Counselors, Not Cops and Arts, Not Arrests.” And the ACLU attorney wants to take off the “Arts Not Arrests” part. But arts and arrests are really connected.

In her new book "Don't Wait," Sonali Kohli chronicles how Sonia Patel Banker joined an ACLU campaign to fight for expanded access to arts education in California.

When you provide students more access to education outside of what is required of them, you offer students the option to develop passion, to explore different kinds of activities, to have a safe place to work, to feel joy, to express their emotions in a healthy way. I think giving that weight is important.

Think about how much we all turned to art, in all of its forms, during the pandemic. In our darkest times, art is vital. And it has great impacts for children to have access to it.

In the book, there’s a moment where Kahlila wonders: What do I do with this bullhorn? And there’s another moment where Sonia is like, should I just email the ACLU? Why was it important to include these moments where the girls are not sure how to get started?

A lot of the narratives we hear about youth activism are very savior-y. Every generation tells the generation below them — it happened to Gen Z, and now it’s going to happen to Gen Alpha — You’re the ones who are going to save us, I’m so excited for what you’re going to do. And it’s really not fair. Lionizing kids in this way also takes away their humanity.

Internal conflict and being a little bit unsure of how to proceed is a really relatable feeling. And it’s something that a lot of kids go through. I don’t like what’s happening around me. And I do want to do something, but like, I’m not Malala. I’m not a Parkland youth.

We hear a lot about the experiences of activists who have one huge catalytic event. And then they’re activists, and that’s it, and they’re going for it, they’re out in front of hundreds of thousands of people.

But the reality is, to get to that point there’s a lot of little things. There’s being nervous, there’s not knowing what to do with a bullhorn, there’s feeling awkward, there’s missing class. Hopefully, if somebody is reading this, and they’re like: I feel really awkward going to a protest, I don’t really know anyone, they can think about Kahlila and how she dealt with it.

Activism can be disruptive to the girls’ lives. Nalleli had to change schools. Kahlila has trouble sleeping. Why did you want to show some of the mental and physical challenges of activism, alongside their victories?

I wanted a book that’s rooted in hope, but also reality. There’s a lot that’s positive about how engaging in activism impacts you as a person [and] your mental health.

There are also moments where it can be really hard. And I wanted people to see that that is something that these girls experienced, and how they dealt with it. [That] it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to step back. It’s okay for your activism to look different than other people’s based on what your needs are.

What role did school play in the girls’ activism?

For some of them, their activism was deeply rooted in their community [and] their school. Kahlila was trying to get police off of her campus. For some of them, it was about the home, and the home being safe. Part of Nalleli’s work also is about getting oil wells away from schools. Sonia sought out this work outside of her school, and realized that she had access to so much art, in and out of school, and others didn’t.

But I do think that school-based movement work is a very large part of student activism. Organizations like Students Deserve, which Kahlila is a part of, are deeply rooted in school and also in corrective data-gathering.

Kohli's book documents how student activist Kahlila Williams (wearing mask) advocated to remove police from Los Angeles schools and reinvest the savings in academic and mental health support.

Before I started the book, I was covering [Los Angeles Unified School District] and there were reports from Students Deserve at a bunch of different schools of school police pepper spraying kids on and right off of campus. LA’s school police department is subject to public records laws. So we asked them to tell us how many instances they’d had of pepper spray in the last year [or so], and they told me none!

And I said: Okay, well, what about this day? I have a video. And this day, at this time? And that existed because [of] these students, who started their activism in their schools, and then met as a collective, [and] realized that this was happening at multiple places. And then, all of a sudden, [the school police department said]: Oh, yeah! Actually, we do have reports of that.

Each of the girls is a leader in her activism work. But they also turn to adults for support. What would be helpful for teachers, parents, and mentors to keep in mind about the different ways they can support young people in their activism?

These girls each have a question, or they have an experience, or they have a problem. And they seek out adults to support them. The support tends to be along the lines of: Here’s how you can find the information you need for yourself. And here are some things that people do to address these problems.

In Nalleli’s case, her mom is the most grassroots of organizers. Her mother and other mothers were calling authorities to come and get the air quality checked [where they lived] because their children were having extreme health effects [from a nearby oil-drilling site]. And then that became a passion for Nalleli, also, as a child, to speak up for herself.

I think that agency is really important, and creating scaffolding and support so that young people can have that agency.

[That can mean] arming kids with the skills to do their own research and fact-check, and not putting down their sources of information, but rather empowering them to get more.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

The 12 Black women behind Brown v. Board often go unrecognized. A new exhibit aims to change that.

2024-05-13T22:38:21+00:00

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To unearth the forgotten history of the Kansas women who served as plaintiffs in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, Donna Rae Pearson had to dig.

Without published scholarship to go on, Pearson and two other researchers hunted down the women’s obituaries, cross-referenced their details against Census records and city directories, and pored over newspaper clippings, oral histories, and court transcripts.

It was no easy feat: Some women’s names had changed, and some had moved as far away as Oregon.

The result of their work is “The Women of Brown,” which recognizes the lives and contributions of the 12 Black mothers who signed their names, alongside Oliver Brown, to the lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court.

Twelve Black women participated in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, but they often get overlooked. A new exhibit aims to shine a light on their lives and contributions.

A pop-up exhibit showcasing their findings is traveling across Kansas to mark the 70-year anniversary of the landmark decision. That includes a stop at Topeka Public Schools’ commemorative event this week.

Pearson hopes that students and others who see the exhibit will leave curious to find out more about the Black women who committed acts of “everyday activism” to further their children’s education.

Read more of Chalkbeat's coverage of the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

“I don’t think Black women — I don’t think women — get the credit that they are supposed to have when it comes to these kinds of activities,” said Pearson, a museum curator at the Kansas Historical Society and a former local history librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. “I think that’s becoming more and more of a conversation that we have today: How did they contribute to these movements?”

The documents Pearson and her team collected will be housed at the Kansas Historical Society State Archives and Topeka’s local library, so future researchers won’t have to do as much legwork. Pearson is also starting to hear from relatives and others who knew the women, which she hopes will contribute to the scholarship, too.

“We just needed to bring them out of the dark,” she said. “We needed to say their names out loud again.”

Chalkbeat spoke with Pearson about why the 12 women joined the lawsuit and the challenges of researching Black women’s history. She also has thoughts on how students and teachers can keep the conversation going (see sidebar).

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did the 12 Black women who became plaintiffs in the Brown case come to be part of the lawsuit?

We don’t know exactly how all of them came to be part of it. Lucinda Todd, one of the plaintiffs, and actually the first plaintiff to sign up, was heavily involved in the NAACP. She was on a special committee when talk of this lawsuit started happening, and she helped recruit parents.

We also identified different locations throughout the city [of Topeka] where these women could have possibly met. They were all involved in formal religious activities. Some of them went to church together. Some of them were involved in social clubs together. So we believe there was this network where they could have been simply having coffee or tea and saying: ‘Hey, I decided to sign up. How about you?’

Why have they historically gotten less attention than Oliver Brown?

In our legal system, ‘et al’ can hide a lot of things. That means ‘and more.’ Et al really covers up, initially, the fact that these women were part of the case.

But then you go into a little bit deeper reasons. These are Black women. And our history is not recorded as well as the majority’s history.

The case, initially, was not necessarily as well-received, for different reasons. Why this case happened does not fit our prevailing narrative [in Kansas] of being a ‘free state,’ a state about civil rights. We were actually one of three northern states that allowed permissive segregation, which means, by law, they could segregate.

What were the ways in which the women saw that their children were not getting equal opportunities as white children at school?

When you read the transcript from the local court trial, you’ll find that there were problems with the busing system and being able to pick up their children in a timely manner. The Brown children had to walk almost a mile by railroad tracks just to get to their bus stop. These long commutes would have interfered with their schooling. You’re going to get up earlier than a person who’s going to walk two minutes. That’s eating time before school and after school.

[Students who lived far from their schools] couldn’t go home for lunch. They had to bring lunch, and supposedly the lunch wasn’t going to be as nutritious as a hot, home-cooked meal.

There were other things, in terms of activities that were not available. What sparked some of this was Lucinda Todd was super mad about the fact that her daughter, Nancy, could not participate in the district-wide [music] program. There were 18 schools, but only 14 of them were participating. What schools did they leave out? The four Black schools. It was because of Lucinda Todd’s complaints that they were finally able to get [music programs].

There were sports available at the upper levels in Topeka, but the [activities were] segregated. So there was a Black basketball team and a white basketball team. There was a Black prom and a white prom. Even though they all went to school together, all those activities were actually segregated. [Kansas law at the time permitted segregated elementary schools, but high schools were supposed to be integrated.]

Initially, the women were featured in some news coverage, but then their voices just kind of dropped out. What were you able to glean from what they did share over the years?

As the secretary of the NAACP, Lucinda Todd sent out this very long press release that explains the case to the community. But over time, you see the male figures that were involved with the case, they continue to be elevated. But the women, you don’t see them asked as many questions later on, or any questions.

Toward the ‘80s and ‘90s, when the historic site was being lobbied for and built here, they brought them back again. Locally, the one disarming piece that I found was an article that was talking about them, and it tried to give a status update. It kept saying: ‘No information known.’ And we discovered that some of these women were actually still alive, living in the city.

But I also have to remember … the challenge with doing women’s history — not just Black women, but women in general — is we are [often] forced to change our names. In some cases, especially then, they were not referred to by their first and last name. They’re referred to as ‘Mrs. Brown.’ And it’s like: ‘Well, Mrs. Brown surely has a first name!’ So that made it a little bit challenging.

How do the women who participated in this lawsuit fit within the larger tradition of African American women participating in advocacy and organizing in their communities?

It’s kind of a culmination of all the experiences they were able to have. Colored women’s clubs were here as early as the 1890s. Black women are the backbone of those [church] organizations. When you decide to have an event at church, and you’re the one in charge, you start organizing. You start getting people on board, you start raising money.

Among "The Women of Brown" is Lucinda Todd, whose letter to the national NAACP sparked the lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court.

We had Black women who were involved in entrepreneurship. There were women who owned their own businesses. They were not used to necessarily sitting on the sidelines here. I think as organizers, they were in a community where it was acceptable for them to sign up and do things like this.

What lessons can we draw from ‘The Women of Brown’ about the significance of everyday activism?

I think we need to broaden our definition of what activism is. It is not always Martin Luther King, standing at a pulpit. Everyday activism is really the little things that you can do in your own community to make a difference. It’s when we take a stand for something that we believe in.

Some would say what I’m doing right now is being an activist. I’m bringing up a story; I’m posing challenging questions.

Did you make any personal connections to what you learned about the women of Brown?

As a historian, I very intentionally did not talk about the decision [in the past]. Part of the reason was because of the way it is portrayed in the media. Yes, it is a celebration of sorts. But y’all have to remember, the reason why this case happened is because there was blatant segregation in this state for an extended period of time, within our lives.

My class, when I entered elementary school in the ‘70s, was considered the first truly integrated class. My older brothers, my older sisters, in particular, went to segregated Black schools. And this was post the [Brown] decision. These are things we are still wrestling with.

I didn’t think we were looking at [the Brown decision] from a very truthful perspective. I don’t think we were looking at all the nuances, and the impact that it created on different communities.

During this time period, you had a couple of things happen to the Black community. Redlining forced us into one community. With desegregation of schools, you were breaking up that school network, that bonding of a community. Then the next step was urban renewal — that totally wiped out some of these communities.

I needed to look closer at the decision from another perspective, so I could understand it.

What would you like for students who are going to see the exhibit to take away from it?

I hope it’s a conversation-starter for them. I hope that they can relate to the women.

They were ignored. Hopefully, this will again bring them to the forefront and shine some light on them. Hopefully, it makes you curious enough to want to learn a little bit more about them.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Not just oppression: Lessons from one state on how schools can get Asian American history right

2024-05-09T11:01:00+00:00

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A former California park ranger traced his fingers over the Chinese characters carved onto a wall. It was as if ghosts were there, sharing their stories, he said.

The ranger was standing in the immigration station on Angel Island, the lesser-known West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island. Tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly from China and Japan, were detained there in the early 1900s. Many left behind poems or messages.

Poems written in Chinese can be seen etched into the walls at the Angel Island Immigration Station in California.

Dozens of Illinois teachers watched the ranger in a recorded video. They had gathered over Zoom to learn about how they could incorporate Angel Island and other key elements of Asian American history into their lessons. It was part of a university-led training meant to help Illinois teachers comply with a three-year-old, first-in-the-nation law that requires schools statewide to teach at least one unit of Asian American history.

Laura Ouk, one of the trainers that April evening, pulled up two poems from Angel Island and asked the teachers to read them aloud. Then she offered some sample questions the teachers could use with their students to examine tone and themes, as well as how they might connect the poetry to the works of poets like Langston Hughes and Joy Harjo.

“They really appreciate being able to see it in action,” Ouk said, “rather than just being like: ‘Here’s a resource, now good luck!’”

Across the country, advocates are pushing for American history to include more perspectives and stories. Eleven states now require public schools to teach Asian American history in some capacity, and several others are considering similar proposals. But as states and school districts adopt new curriculum requirements, educators can struggle with their own lack of knowledge, where to find quality resources — and how to fit it all into an already crowded syllabus.

Laura Ouk demonstrates how teachers can use poems from Angel Island in their lessons as part of an April 2024 training about teaching Asian American history.

The work happening in Illinois offers insight into what can help. It’s common for teachers to feel overwhelmed and think: “I need to teach this, I don’t even fully know this yet,” said Ouk, the visiting inclusive education director at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Education and Illinois State Board of Education.

To address that, teacher trainers say they’re modeling lessons, showing teachers where Asian American voices and experiences naturally fit within existing curriculum, and sharing strategies that are useful for teaching the history of many marginalized groups.

“We don’t want teachers to blow up their curriculums,” Ouk said.

Why states are requiring Asian American history lessons

When Illinois’ governor signed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act in 2021, it became the first state with a standalone law requiring public schools to teach Asian American history. Since then, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Florida have enacted similar laws.

Half a dozen other states — California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Utah — require schools to teach Asian American history as part of a broader curriculum, according to a 2023 report by the Committee of 100, a nonprofit tracking these efforts.

Proponents of these laws say they’re necessary because students typically don’t learn much Asian American history at school.

Eighteen states are silent on what students should learn in their history classes, according to research conducted by Sohyun An, a professor of social studies education at Kennesaw State University.

Other states focus on just a handful of events in Asian American history, An found, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Often, that instruction presents Asian Americans as powerless victims, An said, without showing acts of resistance, such as how Chinese immigrants who built the railroad protested their working conditions and pay. And it tends to be simplistic, glossing over, for instance, how U.S. and European imperialism created economic hardships that forced many Chinese to leave their home country.

“When we teach about power and oppression, we need to highlight people’s agency, resistance, and solidarity,” An said. “That’s, I think, what good history education is about.”

Collaboration is key to Asian American history training

As happens in many states, Illinois did not offer additional funding to help schools fulfill the new Asian American history requirement. So nonprofits, universities, and foundations have stepped in to offer training and support.

Ouk is part of the University of Illinois’ efforts to offer teachers both live and go-at-your-own-pace sessions. Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago, a nonprofit that works on racial equity issues, launched a free training for teachers in 2022 and put together written examples of how teachers can include Asian American experiences in their reading and social studies lessons.

The organization also maintains a giant database of lesson ideas.

“We’re trying to sift through all the garbage,” said Esther Hurh, an education consultant who helped develop the training and now leads sessions for educators. “Teachers want to do this, they just need people to support them.”

Together, the university and the nonprofit trained 1,700 teachers across Illinois last school year, the first year the new requirement was in effect. It’s a good start, advocates say, but a lot more teachers still need training. Without a better understanding of the Asian American experience, experts say, it’s harder for teachers to try out sample lessons, even if they’re good ones.

During the training that Hurh leads, teachers read reflections from Asian American teachers about how it felt not to see themselves in their own schools’ curriculum. Many felt ashamed or excluded.

Esther Hurh helped develop a teacher training for Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago.

In one essay, a Japanese American teacher recalls that as her high school history class approached its unit on Japanese American incarceration, she readied herself to share what happened to her own family.

But the teacher sped through the lesson, and there was no time for sharing.

“When you’re negated in curriculum, that plays a huge role in how you feel and understand your connection to schooling,” Hurh said. “For a lot of teachers, that’s a very compelling argument for them to do this work. Because, in the end, they’re doing it for their students.”

The training breaks down the many nationalities and ethnic groups that fit within the Asian American umbrella. Teachers also learn about two major Asian American stereotypes — the racist “yellow peril” and the “model minority” — and how those ideas repeat throughout history.

With that groundwork laid, teachers watch several model lessons, including how they can include the story of Mamie Tape, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, in lessons about efforts to desegregate U.S. schools; how Larry Itliong, a Filipino American, contributed to the famous Delano grape strike; and how the children’s book “A Different Pond” can support teaching about the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees.

Trainers want to show teachers how they can choose literature and primary sources that not only center the voices of Asian Americans, but diversify the voices they include. Stories about Pacific Islanders and South and Southeast Asians tend to be even less represented than those from East Asia, Hurh noted.

How teachers have put their training into action

Tom McManamen, who heads the social studies department at Neuqua Valley High School in west suburban Chicago, walked away from his session with 24 pages of typed notes that he still consults.

He now looks for additional visuals as he teaches about what it means to be American. For example, he plays a video in his human geography class about a Sikh farmer in California. When his students see a man in cowboy boots wearing a turban, they often exclaim: “Oh, wow!”

High school teachers across McManamen’s school district and county are getting trained, too. One colleague used what he learned to incorporate the murder of Vincent Chin into lessons about immigration and the auto industry. Another used political cartoons to teach about Asian American stereotypes. The training helped teachers know what to look for as they searched for resources that weren’t shown during the training, too.

“What I love is when I hear them brainstorming over it,” McManamen said, “What used to be a difficult conversation, like: ‘How do we do this?’ It’s now: ‘Oh, you could do this, we could do this! I ran across this when I was watching TV that was totally a great example!’”

Still, even with this kind of training, experts in the field admit it can be difficult for teachers to cover as much ground as they might like, especially if their state also has requirements around teaching Black, Latino, and Indigenous histories.

An, of Kennesaw State University, noted that teaching students skills so they can conduct historical inquiries on their own helps them keep learning. That could include showing students how to find stories that challenge the dominant narrative, read between the lines of primary sources, or look for examples of resistance whenever there is oppression.

“We don’t have to teach every single topic,” An said. “One lesson can do so many things actually, if it’s well-done.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

LGBTQ students wonder what’s next as conservative states seek to block new Title IX rules

2024-05-01T01:19:00+00:00

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For LGBTQ youth whose rights have been under attack by Republican state officials, new federal regulations protecting them from discrimination at school were a welcome sign that someone in power had their back.

But within two days of new Title IX rules being published Monday, top officials in 15 states announced they were suing to block the new rules from going into effect. In four separate lawsuits, Republican officials alleged the new rules endangered free speech and represented an attack on the very group Title IX was designed to protect: women.

Officials in many of these states had already warned schools not to implement the new rules, which would protect students’ ability to use restrooms that match their gender identity and use the names and pronouns they prefer.

“Do not comply,” Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told schools at a Monday press conference announcing his state’s lawsuit. “Allow this process, this legal process to unfold, rely on our office if you need support, but do not comply with these radical rules from the Biden administration.”

The lawsuits highlight an ongoing culture war centered on the rights of trans students at school. Republican states have passed a host of laws limiting trans youth’s participation in sports, which bathrooms these students can use, and which names they can go by. Supporters of these laws say they protect fairness, privacy, and free speech. Advocates for LGBTQ youth say they endanger vulnerable students and actually infringe on privacy and free speech, and that the new Biden Title IX rules give students key legal safeguards.

Some legal experts believe the new Title IX rules — which clarify that gender identity is covered by laws prohibiting sex discrimination — are likely to withstand conservative challenges. In the meantime, teachers and school administrators are caught between federal law, which usually takes precedence, and state law, which can loom larger in the classroom.

And queer youth and their allies say their states’ defiance of federal law reinforces the idea that their existence is a problem and that their government is targeting them.

“You already had kids who literally did not use the bathroom at school,” said A’Niya Robinson, an advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Louisiana. “They were afraid that they would be targeted for just completing a bodily function. These rules are a reprieve from kids having to experience that, and then to have your state want to undo that, it’s just unfortunate.”

States say new Biden rules undermine Title IX

In 2016, under former President Barack Obama, top officials at the Education and Justice departments issued guidance to schools saying that transgender students were protected from discrimination based on their gender identity under Title IX.

But that guidance was quickly rescinded by the Trump administration.

When President Joe Biden took office, officials moved to make the Obama-era interpretation binding by going through nearly two years of formal rule-making. The final rule, which the Biden administration announced April 19 and is slated to take effect Aug. 1, gives LGBTQ students and others explicit protection from sex discrimination “based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

The backlash has been swift. Within days, top education officials in several states told schools to disregard the rule changes. This week, 15 states filed four separate lawsuits seeking to block the rules from taking effect.

At a Monday press conference announcing one of the lawsuits, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the new regulations sought “to remake American societal norms through classrooms, lunchrooms, bathrooms, and locker rooms of American schools.”

“These rules eviscerate Title IX,” Murrill said.

The following day, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said the text of Title IX refers “over and over again to a sex binary, to men and women, to one sex or the other.”

Though each lawsuit is slightly different, they all essentially argue that the U.S. Department of Education exceeded its authority by expanding the definition of what constitutes sex discrimination, and that the changes run contrary to the original intent of Title IX.

Even though the new rules don’t address sports and the Education Department is working on separate sports guidance, opponents of the new rules have said they believe they open the door to widespread participation by trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.

That view was underscored at Tuesday’s joint press conference with the attorneys general of Tennessee and West Virginia, which featured elite swimmer Riley Gaines. Gaines became an outspoken advocate for keeping transgender women out of women’s sports after having to compete against and share a locker room with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

Similarly, West Virginia is engaged in ongoing litigation to prevent a 13-year-old from competing in girls’ track.

The bulk of the concerns in the lawsuits focus on trans girls being permitted to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, and that school staff will be compelled to call trans and non-binary students by their preferred names and pronouns.

Skrmetti said the facilities concern is not just about gender identity. He fears that the new Title IX rules could require that any boy be allowed in girls’ restrooms. A girl who expressed discomfort with that could be liable for creating an illegal hostile environment because she questioned that student’s gender, he said.

But the Title IX rules make clear that schools can still maintain single-gender restrooms.

While the new rules bar invasive medical tests or burdensome documentation to establish gender identity, schools can request a written confirmation from the student, a parent, or other adult. Schools can also rely on the child’s consistent self-identification.

Several states’ laws forbid trans students from accessing bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity and permit school staff to use the pronouns and name a student was assigned at birth, even if the student now uses a different name or pronouns.

National surveys have repeatedly found that these kinds of policies negatively affect LGBTQ youth, who often feel unsafe at school, struggle with mental health, and are more likely to consider suicide than their peers. When the Education Department gathered feedback on a draft version of the rules, officials said many students reported that schools ignored bullying, threats, and harassment based on their gender identity, leaving them in constant fear and anxiety.

For Zelda Duitch, who is trans and co-president of the Gender Sexuality Alliance at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, finding a supportive school has been critical to his educational success.

“When I was socially transitioning, all of my teachers were really supportive,” he said. “That was integral not just for my mental health, but for my education. I would not have been able to learn if I hadn’t been accepted.”

When Florida adopted its “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Zelda felt sorry for queer youth there. Now his own state has a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and a package of anti-LGBTQ bills is sailing through the Louisiana Legislature.

“It’s hard to describe how much anger and pain there is,” Zelda said. “It made me feel like my state was trying to kill me.”

Why the new Title IX rules matter

Practically, the new rules matter because they give students, families, and advocates sturdier ground to stand on when they file a federal civil rights complaint or a lawsuit seeking to challenge a school’s policy.

The Title IX complaint process can be slow and cumbersome, but it’s a powerful tool for students to protect their rights, said Craig White, who runs the supportive schools program for the Campaign for Southern Equality. That’s especially true for students in small towns who may not have access to attorneys or large advocacy groups.

Students can say: “This discrimination is wrong, and I’m standing up,” White said.

The new rules explicitly state that denying a trans student access to a bathroom or locker room that corresponds with their gender identity causes harm to the student in a way that generally violates Title IX.

If a teacher repeatedly refused to call a student by their preferred name and pronouns, leaving the student feeling unwelcome at school, that could violate Title IX, too.

Suzanne Eckes, a professor of education law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the big legal question now is whether the definition of sex in Title IX can include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Supreme Court decided in 2020 in Bostock v. Clayton County that employees are protected from sex discrimination, including based on sexual orientation and gender identity, under Title VII, another federal civil rights law.

And while there are a few outlier cases, plenty of federal courts have already ruled that Title IX should be interpreted the same way, Eckes said.

“The vast majority of federal and state courts have ended in favorable results for trans students,” Eckes said.

But Matt Sharp, senior counsel for conservative legal group the Alliance Defending Freedom believes the Bostock case doesn’t apply in many of the scenarios covered under Title IX, an interpretation shared by many Republican AGs.

Access to bathrooms and locker rooms implicates personal privacy, he said, and courts have found that physiological differences between men and women justify separate facilities.

Protesters chant outside the Indiana House of Representatives during an education committee hearing about that state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill. Indiana is among the states suing the federal government to overturn new Title IX rules.

Advocates say anti-LGTBQ laws silence allies, spread fear

White, of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said the climate fostered by states’ policies can send ripple effects through the school day.

A student might be misgendered by a teacher in first period, attract scrutiny for which bathroom they use in second period, be unable to use a locker room in third period, then get bullied at lunch — only to be told by a lunch monitor that other students don’t agree with their “lifestyle.”

“Students do not experience these as isolated incidents,” White said.

But he also noted that such laws can spread fear and silence allies. In Indiana, for example, where a new law requires schools to notify parents if a student wants to go by a different name, Gender Sexuality Alliance clubs have stopped meeting in many schools, as students fear sponsors would be required to out them, said Chris Paulsen, CEO of Indiana Youth Group, which supports GSAs across the state.

Indiana is among the states that have directed schools not to change their policies to comply with the new Title IX rules, and it has joined Tennessee’s lawsuit.

Peyton Rose Michelle, who leads Louisiana Trans Advocates, remembers being bullied as early as first grade and called slurs she didn’t understand. By middle school, she had trained herself not to use the bathroom until she got home around 4:30 p.m.

She hears about students doing the same thing today — as well as skipping school to avoid bullying. The new Title IX protections are about doing the right thing for kids, she said.

“Bathrooms in middle school are for peeing and looking at yourself in the mirror,” Michelle said, “and trans kids should be able to do both of those things without fear of bullying and harassment.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Half of new state spending on preschool was backed by COVID aid last year, new report finds

2024-04-18T04:01:00+00:00

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After preschool enrollment took a nosedive during the pandemic, a new report offers some encouraging news. A record share of young children enrolled in preschool last school year, and state spending on preschool reached an all-time high.

New universal preschool initiatives in several states contributed to those increases, but federal COVID relief funding also played a crucial role, according to a report released Thursday by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

Half of the new spending on state preschool programs last year was backed by pandemic aid, the researchers found.

That money helped improve access — preschool enrollment was up in nearly every state — but it also raises real questions about whether states will be able to sustain their investments after that federal funding runs out this fall. Some of the 26 states that spent COVID aid on preschool last year have plans to bridge the gap, but others do not.

“It’s important to make sure that they all do, so we don’t move backwards,” said Steven Barnett, the director of the research institute and a co-author of the report. Already, “the nation remains very far away from providing a high-quality preschool education to every child at age 4, much less at age 3.”

The problem of the fiscal cliff isn’t unique to early education — K-12 schools are also grappling with how to fill budget holes left by expiring pandemic aid. State officials and school leaders nationwide are making difficult decisions about whether they can afford to keep many kinds of pandemic-era investments, including school mental health staff, intensive tutoring programs, and expanded summer school. Some districts, such as Chicago and New York City, also expanded preschool access with COVID dollars.

Earlier in the pandemic, COVID aid helped keep preschool teachers employed and child care providers open. But last school year, much of the money was spent to get more kids into preschool. Those strategies included recruiting and training preschool teachers, raising pay for preschool teachers at community-based providers, which typically pay less than schools, and doing more outreach to parents.

States spent at least $571 million in COVID aid on their preschool programs during the 2022-23 school year, the report found, though it’s likely more, as not all of the 26 states were able to say how much pandemic aid they used. That made up a small share of the overall $11.7 billion that states put toward their preschool programs that year. But it accounted for half of the $1.2 billion in new state spending on preschool.

Some states put a large chunk of their COVID dollars toward preschool expansion, but have come up with a plan to at least partially fill that gap.

North Dakota, for example, paid for its Best in Class program for 4-year-olds entirely with COVID relief funds last year. But state lawmakers recently approved putting $12 million in state money toward that program over the next two years, which will more than cover the gap left by expiring pandemic aid.

In Michigan, officials spent $83 million in COVID relief dollars on the state’s Great Start Readiness program, which offers free preschool to 4-year-olds primarily from low-income families. That made up a quarter of all state spending on preschool last year, and helped the program enroll an additional 2,200 children.

For this school year, Michigan lawmakers approved spending an extra $74 million in state funds to help make up for the loss of COVID funding. That investment comes as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer works to fulfill her pledge to make preschool free for all 4-year-olds.

Matt Gillard, the president and CEO of Michigan’s Children, a nonprofit that works on early education policies, said he’s not surprised that Michigan is one of the states that put a lot of COVID aid toward increasing preschool access, and now is using that investment as a springboard to get closer to a universal preschool program.

“Pre-K has been a priority with bipartisan support in Michigan for a long time,” he said. “We have a lot of need in communities, and the COVID relief dollars provided an opportunity for the state to expand that.”

But the picture is less clear elsewhere. Virginia spent around $16.3 million in COVID money last year on the state’s mixed-delivery program, which funds preschool at community-based providers and in other non-school settings. COVID funds make up the bulk of the spending for that program again this school year. Whether the state can sustain that spending will be determined by future budget negotiations, the report notes. (The Virginia Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.)

That states led by both Republican and Democratic governors used federal COVID aid to expand preschool suggests there could be bipartisan support for the federal government to offer more money for this work, Barnett said. That could be especially important as gaps in preschool access and quality continue to grow between states.

“New state initiatives for universal preschool have already started to reshape the preschool landscape,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an assistant research professor at Rutgers and the report’s lead author. “Which states will be left behind as all these other states move forward?”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Un grupo vinculado a Trump elabora un plan para negar la educación gratuita a los estudiantes indocumentados

2024-04-12T19:55:02+00:00

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Un grupo conservador influyente publicó recientemente un informe en el que pide a los estados que exijan a las escuelas públicas que cobren a los niños migrantes no acompañados y a los niños con padres indocumentados para inscribirse. La Fundación Heritage está gastando decenas de millones de dólares para elaborar un conjunto de políticas para un segundo mandato presidencial de Trump.

Esta medida “atraería una demanda de la izquierda”, afirma el informe, “lo que probablemente llevaría al Tribunal Supremo a reconsiderar su desacertada decisión en el caso Plyler v. Doe”, haciendo referencia a la sentencia de 1982 que consideraba inconstitucional negar a los niños la educación pública por su estatus migratorio.

Plyler ha sobrevivido ataques durante más de 40 años. Pero algunos expertos legales y defensores de los niños inmigrantes dicen que la nueva propuesta para debilitarla debe ser tomada en serio, dada la extrema retórica anti-inmigrante de Trump, el constante bombardeo de titulares sobre la “crisis de los migrantes” y la predisposición reciente de la Corte Suprema liderada por los conservadores a derogar precedentes legales establecidos.

Las políticas actuales de inmigración ilegal y la imagen que los conservadores, e incluso algunos liberales, han pintado de sobrecargar los recursos de los estados y las localidades, creo que es un factor enorme”, dijo Brett Geier, un profesor de la Universidad del Oeste de Michigan (Michigan Western University) que escribió un libro sobre las escuelas K-12 y el Tribunal Supremo. “Creo que este tribunal tiene el descaro de decir: Vamos a encargarnos de ello y derogarlo”.

Pero otros dicen que la verdadera intención es agitar a los votantes en un año electoral, y que el caso Plyler v. Doe realmente no corre peligro.

“Cada vez que hay elecciones, de repente el tema de la inmigración se convierte en un gran problema, y [oímos]: ‘Tenemos que hacer algo con estos inmigrantes, y deshacernos de ellos, y no pagar por su educación’”, dijo Patricia Gándara, profesora de investigación en la Escuela de Posgrado de Educación de la UCLA, que ha escrito mucho acerca de cómo la aplicación de las leyes migratorias afecta a los niños y las escuelas. “Después de las elecciones, el tema se esfuma”.

Cobrar la matriculación escolar en Texas condujo al fallo Plyler

Una proporción cada vez mayor de estadounidenses, y sobre todo republicanos, afirman que las políticas de inmigración son una de sus mayores preocupaciones en estos momentos. Y las cuestiones de inmigración están acaparando mucha atención en las elecciones presidenciales de este año.

Trump había hecho su campaña con una serie de políticas de inmigración de mano dura y restrictivas, como la deportación masiva de inmigrantes indocumentados y el fin del reasentamiento de refugiados. También ha asegurado falsamente que los niños inmigrantes han desplazado a otros niños en las escuelas públicas de Nueva York.

El enfoque en materia de inmigración se debe a que el país está viendo un aumento importante del número de inmigrantes que llegan a la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México. Las autoridades federales contabilizaron casi 2,5 millones de personas que llegaron a la frontera sur el año pasado. Esto representa un aumento del 43% en comparación con dos años antes, aunque no todos fueron admitidos. Una cantidad cada vez mayor corresponde a familias con niños.

Más de tres cuartas partes de los estadounidenses consideran que lo que está ocurriendo en la frontera es un problema grave o una crisis, según una encuesta reciente del Centro de Investigaciones Pew. Casi una cuarta parte de los adultos estadounidenses dijeron que les preocupaba que el aumento de inmigrantes podría ser una carga económica para el país.

La Fundación Heritage (The Heritage Foundation) ha abordado estas preocupaciones en su informe reciente, titulado “Las consecuencias de la inmigración ilegal desenfrenada en las escuelas públicas de Estados Unidos”. En él, la organización critica el enfoque del Presidente Biden a las políticas de inmigración, diciendo que ha dado lugar a “un gran número de niños que no hablan inglés” que se matriculan en las escuelas públicas.

El documento cita ejemplos de escuelas de Texas que daban clases en los pasillos, y de una escuela secundaria de Brooklyn que hizo que los alumnos aprendieran virtualmente durante un día después de que la escuela alojara a familias migrantes toda la noche durante una tormenta.

En respuesta, la Fundación Heritage le está pidiendo a los estados que prohíban a las escuelas el alojamiento de inmigrantes indocumentados y que exijan a las escuelas que recopilen datos de matriculación de estudiantes por estatus migratorio “para que se puedan hacer unos análisis de costos con precisión”. Los estados deberían exigir a los distritos escolares que cobren a los niños indocumentados la matriculación para asistir a la escuela pública, sostiene el informe.

Fue precisamente esta práctica hace casi medio siglo -en el mismo estado que desobedece al gobierno federal al ocuparse de la aplicación de las leyes de inmigración- la que condujo al fallo del caso Plyler v. Doe.

Texas aprobó en 1975 una ley que impedía que las escuelas públicas recibieran financiación estatal para la educación de niños indocumentados y que los distritos podían prohibir a estos estudiantes que asistieran gratuitamente a la escuela pública.

Dos años más tarde, el distrito escolar independiente de Tyler empezó a cobrarle a los niños indocumentados mil dólares al año por asistir a la escuela — una suma que los funcionarios del distrito sabían que sería inasequible para las familias inmigrantes de la zona, que a menudo trabajaban en la famosa industria de rosas de Tyler, en plantas procesadoras de carne y en granjas.

“Creo que ninguna familia podría haber pagado eso”, dijo James Plyler, superintendente del distrito, a un periodista de Education Week en 2007. “Mil dólares en 1977 era muchísimo dinero, y la mayoría de esas familias que llegaron trabajaban por el salario mínimo”.

Cuatro familias cuyos hijos no pudieron asistir a la escuela demandaron a Plyler y al distrito escolar, y finalmente ganaron ante el Tribunal Supremo. En la opinión de 5-4 de la mayoría, el juez William Brennan escribió que no permitir a los niños indocumentados aprender a leer y escribir tendría un " impacto incalculable” en su “bienestar social, económico, intelectual y psicológico”. (Los jueces que disentían estaban de acuerdo en que era incorrecto que se negara la educación a los niños indocumentados, pero argumentaron que no era una violación constitucional).

Actualmente, la Fundación Heritage sostiene que los costos de la educación han aumentado demasiado y que los estados y las escuelas deberían poder recuperarlos. El gobierno federal podría ayudar, dijo Madison Marino, una investigadora asociada senior que es coautora del informe de la Fundación Heritage, o los padres o patrocinadores de los estudiantes indocumentados podrían pagar.

“Realmente no buscamos privar a estos niños de su educación”, dijo Marino. “Hacemos un llamado para que todos contribuyan”.

La mayor parte de las familias indocumentadas de hoy probablemente tendrían dificultades para pagar la matrícula escolar, al igual que en 1977. Y la ayuda federal parece poco probable. El Congreso está profundamente dividido sobre cómo financiar políticas de inmigración y si las escuelas necesitan más fondos a raíz de la pandemia, y el Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. ha destinado históricamente una pequeña fracción de su presupuesto a la educación de estudiantes que aprenden inglés y de estudiantes inmigrantes.

La campaña de Trump no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios sobre las propuestas de la Fundación Heritage para impugnar el caso Plyler, pero hay observadores que creen que el think tank(gabinete estratégico) desempeñaría un papel crucial en una segunda administración de Trump. Por otra parte, la campaña ha dicho que los grupos externos no hablan en nombre de Trump ni de su campaña, y que las recomendaciones políticas son sólo eso.

Veintiún años después del fallo del Tribunal Supremo en el caso Plyler v. Doe, el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Tyler en Texas, ofrecía un programa bilingüe español-inglés para alumnos de preescolar y de primer grado.

El traslado en autobús de inmigrantes a ciudades impulsa pedidos de ayuda federal

Quién se hace cargo de la responsabilidad financiera de la educación de los niños indocumentados ha sido un tema polémico de debate, especialmente en los últimos dos años.

En mayo de 2022, el gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, dijo que quería impugnar el caso Plyler v. Doe “porque los gastos son exorbitantes y los tiempos son diferentes” que en 1982. Le pidió al gobierno federal que cubriera los gastos educativos de los estudiantes indocumentados.

Desde entonces, Abbott ha enviado en autobús a más de 75.000 inmigrantes a seis ciudades dirigidas por demócratas que tienen ciertas políticas “santuario” que protegen a los inmigrantes.

Los estudiantes recién llegados pueden aportar muchas cualidades, desde la diversidad lingüística hasta el conocimiento de la vida en otros lugares del mundo, dicen los educadores, y algunas escuelas se han adaptado con éxito para satisfacer las necesidades de los recién llegados.

Pero muchas escuelas han tenido dificultades para hacerlo. Los estudiantes recién llegados no suelen hablar inglés y a veces han pasado meses o incluso años sin ir a la escuela. Muchos han sufrido traumas en su viaje a Estados Unidos o en su país de origen que pueden afectar a su formación escolar. Las escuelas carecen a menudo de profesores bilingües y de personal de salud mental para proporcionar ayuda. Y cuando llegan muchos estudiantes a mitad de año, la financiación estatal no siempre llega de inmediato, por lo que las escuelas tienen que arreglárselas con los recursos disponibles.

Muchos educadores y funcionarios locales han pedido a sus estados y al gobierno federal que proporcionen fondos adicionales para ayudar, con un escaso éxito. El proyecto de presupuesto del gobernador de Illinois no incluía fondos adicionales para estudiantes inmigrantes, y los fondos adicionales asignados en Colorado equivalen a menos de la mitad de lo que el estado gastaría normalmente por estudiante.

La impugnación de Plyler podría depender de cuestiones de gastos

Desafiar a Plyler sería difícil, dijo Thomas A. Sáenz, presidente y consejero general jurídico del Fondo Educativo y de Defensa Legal México-Estadounidense, que representó a las familias en el caso Plyler original. El fallo está ahora vinculado a otras leyes federales, así como a la protección de la privacidad de los alumnos de primaria y secundaria.

“No es como: ‘Oh, simplemente preparémonos para Plyler, y aprobemos una ley, e inmediatamente este Tribunal Supremo más conservador anulará la decisión del 82′”, dijo. “Ese análisis es demasiado sencillo”.

Pero hay formas en que Plyler podría ser vulnerable, dijo Amanda Warner, candidata a doctorado en la Universidad George Mason que analizó las impugnaciones anteriores al fallo. El Tribunal Supremo actual ha favorecido los derechos de los estados y una lectura originalista de la Constitución. Y en 1973, el Tribunal Supremo sostuvo que no existe un derecho constitucional a la educación.

Según Warner, se trata de una “deficiencia evidente” que podría ser aprovechada.

Otra vía para impugnar el fallo podría centrarse en las condiciones y los costos de la educación, y si éstos han cambiado lo suficiente como para justificar que se niegue a los niños indocumentados una educación pública gratuita.

En 1982, Texas argumentó que necesitaba hacerlo para proteger los recursos destinados a la educación de sus “residentes legales”. Pero el Tribunal Supremo rechazó ese argumento. Brennan escribió que los estudiantes indocumentados no imponían “cargas especiales” al sistema educativo de Texas, y que excluirlos de la escuela probablemente no mejoraría la calidad general de la educación.

El informe de la Fundación Heritage sostiene que la inmigración no autorizada, especialmente entre los niños que llegan sin sus padres, ha llegado a un punto en el que “se justifica un replanteamiento”.

El fallo original parece implicar que “existe un umbral” para que un estado demuestre que educar a estudiantes indocumentados es una carga financiera excesiva, dijo Warner. Pero no bastaría con demostrar que el costo de la educación es más alto.

Todo el dinero ahorrado por excluir a los niños indocumentados de la escuela tendría que contrastarse con el efecto dominó sobre las viviendas, los servicios sociales y el sistema de justicia penal. “Los costos se pueden asumir de muchas maneras”, dijo Warner. “¿Cuáles son los costos de tener a todas estas personas sin educación en Estados Unidos?”.

Queda por ver si se planteará un cuestionamiento serio. Marino dijo que ningún funcionario del estado se ha puesto en contacto con la Fundación Heritage para hacer realidad su propuesta.

Después de que Abbott planteara la posibilidad de impugnar a Plyler hace dos años, un legislador de Texas presentó un proyecto de ley que habría negado a los estudiantes indocumentados una educación pública gratuita, a menos que la pagara el gobierno federal. Pero a diferencia de 1975, la propuesta no llegó a ninguna parte.

Nicholas Espíritu, subdirector jurídico del National Immigration Law Center, dijo que si una propuesta de este tipo no podía avanzar en Texas, eso debería desanimar a otros estados a intentarlo.

“Tenemos la esperanza de que, aunque haya algunos murmullos por parte de la Fundación Heritage y de estados como Texas”, dijo, “al final los políticos lleguen a la misma conclusión y se den cuenta de que esta no es una postura que al fin y al cabo cuente con apoyo.”

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es periodista nacional de educación con residencia en Chicago. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Think tank with ties to Trump lays out plan to deny free education to undocumented students

2024-04-09T19:33:42+00:00

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Leer en español.

An influential conservative think tank has laid out a strategy to challenge a landmark Supreme Court decision that protects the right of undocumented children to attend public school.

The Heritage Foundation, which is spending tens of millions of dollars to craft a policy playbook for a second Trump presidential term, recently released a brief calling on states to require public schools to charge unaccompanied migrant children and children with undocumented parents tuition to enroll.

Such a move “would draw a lawsuit from the Left,” the brief states, “which would likely lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its ill-considered Plyler v. Doe decision” — referring to the 1982 ruling that held it was unconstitutional to deny children a public education based on their immigration status.

Plyler has survived challenges for more than 40 years. But some legal experts and advocates for immigrant children say the newest proposal to undermine it should be taken seriously, given Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric, a steady drumbeat of headlines about the “migrant crisis,” and the conservative-led Supreme Court’s recent willingness to overturn established legal precedent.

“The politics right now of illegal immigration and the picture that conservatives, and even some liberals, have painted of stressing the resources of states and localities, I think that that’s a huge factor,” said Brett Geier, a professor at Western Michigan University who wrote a book about K-12 schools and the Supreme Court. “I do think that this court has the chutzpah to say: We’re going to take it on and overturn it.”

But others say the real intent is to rile up voters in an election year, and that Plyler v. Doe isn’t truly at risk.

“Every time there’s an election, all of a sudden immigration becomes a big problem, and [we hear]: ‘We have to do something about these immigrants, and get rid of them, and not pay for their schooling,’” said Patricia Gándara, a research professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education who’s written extensively about how immigration enforcement affects children and schools. “Then after the election is over, it dies away.”

Charging school tuition in Texas led to Plyler ruling

A growing share of Americans, and Republicans in particular, say immigration policy is a top concern right now. And immigration issues are getting a lot of attention in this year’s presidential race.

Trump has campaigned on a series of hardline, restrictive immigration policies, including the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and the end of refugee resettlement. He’s also falsely claimed that migrant children have displaced other kids in New York City’s public schools.

The focus on immigration comes as the country is seeing a significant increase in migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal officials counted nearly 2.5 million people who reached the southern border last year. That was a 43% increase from two years earlier, though not all were admitted. A rising share are families with children.

More than three-quarters of Americans view what’s happening at the border as a major problem or a crisis, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found. Just under a quarter of U.S. adults said they were concerned that the rise in migrants would be an economic burden on the country.

The Heritage Foundation taps into those concerns with its recent brief, titled “The Consequences of Unchecked Illegal Immigration on America’s Public Schools.” In it, the organization criticizes President Biden’s approach to immigration policy, saying it’s led to “large influxes of non-English-speaking children” enrolling in public schools.

The document cites examples of Texas schools holding lessons in hallways, and a Brooklyn high school that had students learn virtually for a day after the school housed migrant families overnight during a rainstorm.

In response, the Heritage Foundation is calling on states to prohibit schools from housing undocumented immigrants and to require schools to collect student enrollment data by immigration status “so that accurate cost analyses can be done.” States should require school districts to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public school, the brief states.

It was this exact practice nearly half a century ago — in the same state that’s defying the federal government by handling its own immigration enforcement — that led to the Plyler v. Doe ruling.

Texas passed a law in 1975 saying that public schools would not receive state funding for the education of undocumented children and that districts could bar these students from attending public school for free.

Two years later, the Tyler Independent School District started charging undocumented children $1,000 a year to attend school — a sum district officials knew would be unaffordable for the area’s immigrant families, who often worked in Tyler’s famous rose industry, along with meat-packing plants and farms.

Twenty-one years after the Supreme Court's Plyler v. Doe ruling, the Tyler Independent School District in Texas offered a Spanish-English dual language program for kindergartners and first graders.

“I don’t think any family could have paid that,” James Plyler, the district’s superintendent, told an Education Week reporter in 2007. “One thousand dollars back in 1977 was lots and lots of money, and most of those families who came in were working for minimum wage.”

Four families whose children were blocked from attending school sued Plyler and the school district, and eventually won at the Supreme Court. In the 5-4 opinion for the majority, Justice William Brennan wrote that denying undocumented children the ability to learn how to read and write would take an “inestimable toll” on their “social, economic, intellectual, and psychological well-being.” (The dissenting justices agreed it was wrong to deny undocumented kids an education, but argued it wasn’t a constitutional violation.)

Now, the Heritage Foundation says those education costs have grown too high, and states and schools should be able to recoup them. The federal government could help, said Madison Marino, a senior research associate who co-authored the Heritage Foundation brief, or parents or sponsors of undocumented students could pay.

“We really aren’t looking to deprive these kids of their education,” Marino said. “We’re calling for everyone to contribute.”

Most undocumented families today would likely struggle to pay school tuition, as they did in 1977. And federal aid seems unlikely. Congress is bitterly divided over how to fund immigration policy and whether schools need more funding in the wake of the pandemic, and the U.S. Department of Education has historically devoted a tiny fraction of its budget to educating English learners and immigrant students.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the Heritage Foundation’s proposals to challenge Plyler, but observers widely believe the think tank would play a crucial role in a second Trump administration. Elsewhere, the campaign has said that external groups do not speak for Trump or his campaign, and that policy recommendations are just that.

Migrants bused to cities spur calls for federal help

Who bears the financial responsibility for educating undocumented children has been a heated topic of debate, especially over the last two years.

In May 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he wanted to challenge Plyler v. Doe “because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different” than in 1982. He called on the federal government to cover the educational costs for undocumented students.

Since then, Abbott has bused more than 75,000 migrants to six cities led by Democrats that have certain “sanctuary” policies protecting immigrants.

Newcomer students can bring many assets, from linguistic diversity to knowledge about life elsewhere in the world, educators say, and some schools have successfully adapted to meet newcomers’ needs.

But many schools have struggled to do so. Newcomer students often do not speak English and sometimes have missed months or even years of schooling. Many experienced trauma on their journey to the U.S. or in their home country that can affect their schooling. Schools often lack bilingual teachers and mental health staff to help. And when lots of students arrive in the middle of the year, state funding doesn’t always follow right away, leaving schools to make do with the resources they have.

Many educators and local officials have called on their states and the federal government to provide additional funding to help — with limited success. Extra money for migrant students was left out of the Illinois governor’s budget proposal, and extra funding allotted in Colorado breaks down to less than half of what the state would typically spend per student.

Plyler challenge could hinge on cost questions

Challenging Plyler would be difficult, said Thomas A. Saenz, the president and general counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represented the families in the original Plyler case. The ruling is now tied up with other federal law, as well as privacy protections for K-12 students.

“It’s not like: ‘Oh, let’s just tee up Plyler, and pass a law, and immediately this more conservative Supreme Court will overturn the ‘82 decision,’” he said. “That analysis is way too facile.”

But there are ways Plyler could be vulnerable, said Amanda Warner, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University who analyzed past challenges to the ruling. The current Supreme Court has favored states’ rights and an originalist reading of the constitution. And in 1973, the Supreme Court held that there is no constitutional right to an education.

That is a “glaring hole” that could be exploited, Warner said.

Another avenue to challenge the ruling could center on educational conditions and costs, and whether those have changed enough to warrant denying undocumented children a free public education.

Back in 1982, Texas argued it needed to do that to preserve resources for educating its “lawful residents.” But the Supreme Court rejected that argument. Brennan wrote that undocumented students did not impose “special burdens” on Texas’ education system, and that excluding them from school would be unlikely to improve the overall quality of education.

The Heritage Foundation brief says that unauthorized immigration, particularly among children arriving without their parents, has reached a point where a “reconsideration is warranted.”

The original ruling seems to imply “there is a bar” for a state to show that educating undocumented students is too much of a financial burden, Warner said. But it wouldn’t be enough to simply show the cost of education is higher.

Any money saved by excluding undocumented children from school would have to be weighed against the ripple effects on housing, social services, and the criminal justice system. “Costs can be borne in a lot of ways,” Warner said. “What are the costs of having all these uneducated persons in the United States?”

Whether a serious challenge will emerge remains to be seen. Marino said no state official has reached out about making the Heritage Foundation’s proposal a reality.

After Abbott raised the possibility of challenging Plyler two years ago, a Texas lawmaker introduced a bill that would have denied undocumented students a free public education, unless the federal government paid for it. But unlike in 1975, the proposal didn’t go anywhere.

Nicholas Espíritu, the deputy legal director for the National Immigration Law Center, said if such a proposal couldn’t advance in Texas, that should deter other states from trying.

“It’s our hope that even though there might be some rumblings from the Heritage Foundation and states like Texas,” he said, “that eventually politicians will come to the same conclusion and realize that this is not a position that is ultimately supported.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

How the 2024 National Teacher of the Year helps English learners adapt in rural Appalachia

2024-04-03T19:50:00+00:00

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As an English as a Second Language specialist at her Tennessee school and a long-time member of her rural Appalachian community, Missy Testerman often finds herself straddling two worlds, trying to bridge the divide.

That could mean anything from accompanying a student and his mother to get a refill for epilepsy medication, to showing the staff at the local courthouse how to use a translation app so they can communicate with immigrant families.

“Simple gestures such as sitting with my students’ families at high school graduation or a school play goes a long way in helping them find acceptance in our rural area since I have belonged to this community for decades and others trust my lead,” Testerman wrote recently. “I take this role as ambassador seriously, and I am thankful for the opportunity to connect these groups.”

And now, Testerman will be serving as an ambassador on an even bigger stage: She’s the new National Teacher of the Year.

Testerman, who teaches English learners at Rogersville City School, earned the title on Wednesday as part of a competition run by the Council of Chief State School Officers. She was previously named Tennessee’s top teacher for 2023.

She’ll spend the next year traveling the country, speaking out about issues she says teachers need to be making noise about, including the persistent mental health challenges kids are facing and the need to offer services even as COVID relief funding dries up.

“At times, it feels as though state legislatures across this country are passing laws that do not address actual problems,” Testerman wrote in her application. “Schools had to hire someone to scan every book in the building under the guise that pornography is lurking in a kindergarten classroom, yet we do not have funding to hire a behaviorist to help with the kindergarteners who are disrupting classrooms every day.”

Chalkbeat spoke with Testerman about how field trips to the post office help her English learners, why she went back to school at the age of 51, and why it’s important for lawmakers to understand what’s really happening inside the nation’s classrooms.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You got your ESL endorsement after teaching for 30 years. Is there a moment or an interaction you had that made you think: ‘I’m going to go back and do this right now’?

Yes, actually, there was. One of my closest allies at school was our ESL teacher. She came to me and let me know that she was moving at the end of the school year. She had done a phenomenal job, not just educating these students and helping them acquire the English language, but also serving as their family resource person in our community. So I was very worried about who was going to advocate for these families.

The next day, I received an email that went out to everyone who was teaching in the state of Tennessee, explaining how the Tennessee Grow Your Own program works. One facet is that teachers who are already licensed could add an endorsement area in a hard-to-fill position, and that year, it was math, special education, and ESL. I was 51 years old, not your typical college student. But I enrolled, and at the end of the year, I was able to transition into her role and become the advocate for my students’ families.

You talked about how much you enjoy getting to be the first person who takes your ESL students to the library, or the post office, or the courthouse. Why is it important to you to do that, and how does that help your students and their families?

Many of my students are their family’s translators. They are the ones calling and making doctor’s appointments at 7 years old, or they are the ones who are translating documents.

Missy Testerman is the 2024 National Teacher of the Year. She teaches English learners at Rogersville City School in Tennessee.

A lot of times, my students are in a situation where pretty much all they do is come to school and go back home. They haven’t had the typical exposure to the things that we’re talking about. They may pass the post office every day, but they don’t understand: This is where I go when I need to mail a package.

Or they may be aware that we have a library, but there’s a language barrier for their parents to be able to take them to the library and explain that they need a library card.

Those are experiences that I get to have. And not only do I get to have them with my students, and open up that pathway for them to be able to share with their families, but also it helps the people in my community to see my families as just another member of the community. It helps them to adapt to living in our rural area.

You’ve been talking with educator prep programs and offering your feedback. What are some of the ways that you’d like to see teacher training improve or change?

The literacy piece is always a big thing. We passed a law called the Tennessee Literacy Act in 2021, and that requires that anyone entering into our classrooms be proficient in the science of reading, and how to teach literacy at any level — not just to students coming in. That’s been part of the conversation.

I’m also talking to them about the types of mental health challenges that we’re seeing, so that they can work that into the curriculum for students to be prepared, and to know what resources are available in schools.

As National Teacher of the Year, what do you want to make sure policymakers are better educated about?

I want our policymakers to know what’s going on inside our classrooms. For far too long, policy has been made by people who are not education experts. They’re not teachers, they don’t spend a lot of time within classrooms.

But we’re not going to make anyone aware unless our teachers are willing to speak up and be advocates — for their students, themselves, our profession — by being honest about what our struggles are, and what will make those struggles better.

Right now, I feel like the most pressing issue that schools across our country are facing are mental health challenges. I’m in a pre-K-8 school, so I’ve seen lots of different situations, anything from depression in our older students, where they are just totally withdrawn from the school situation — they don’t want to be there. That affects their education, obviously, and it also leads to chronic absenteeism.

In our younger students, what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing from other teachers is that students are showing up unable to regulate, or to deal with their frustrations.

These mental health challenges don’t just affect the child experiencing the crisis, or the teachers, they affect every kid in the classroom, every school employee who tries to help and intervene. I see that as a particular challenge.

You wrote in your application that ESSER funds are winding down, but we’re still dealing with big challenges around academic recovery and mental health. How do you think your advocacy can help raise alarms about some of the things that you’re seeing?

That $122 billion that was invested into schools helped schools hire mental health counselors, guidance counselors, behaviorists, and other support staff. And we know we’re still struggling with student mental health at this time. For those supports to be taken away can lead to a very difficult situation.

I hope that I empower teachers to share what that looks like, and why that’s difficult, and why that interrupts the learning of other students in the classroom, so that systems all across the country can figure out a way to make up for those funds and keep the supports in play.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Intensive tutoring is great for academics. Now there’s evidence it can boost attendance.

2024-03-22T10:00:00+00:00

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Twelve-year-old Ethen likes spending time with his math tutors — and not always for reasons related to math.

They crack jokes and play chess with him when he finishes his work early. He likes meeting with them in the library, where it’s easier to ask questions without being talked over. And when he’s had a rough day, he can count on his tutors to cheer him up.

“That’s something good for me because I get to finally see someone that’s happy to see me,” said Ethen, a sixth grader at Cardozo Education Campus in Washington, D.C. “Their smile makes me smile.”

Lots of research has shown that intensive tutoring is one of the best ways to help students improve academically. And it’s become a go-to strategy to help kids who missed a lot of instruction during the pandemic. But a new study suggests high-dosage tutoring can boost something else, too: attendance.

Preliminary research recently released by Stanford University’s National Student Support Accelerator, which is conducting various tutoring studies, found that D.C. students who participated in an intensive tutoring program were more likely to show up to school on days they had a scheduled session. Overall, the likelihood they’d miss school on tutoring days fell by 7%, researchers found.

That finding is especially significant because many schools are still working to re-engage students and curb higher-than-usual absenteeism rates in the wake of the pandemic.

The study doesn’t answer why tutoring boosted attendance. One reason could be that many students, like Ethen, really like their tutors, who often serve as informal mentors and sometimes bond with students outside the classroom, too.

“The kids do feel really cared for,” said Christine Maffuccio, who oversees the high-impact tutoring program at Cardozo. She said that’s because tutors are at students’ side asking: “What do you need? What’s your first step?”

Another reason could be that, after the isolation of remote learning, tutoring reinforces the idea that “learning happens in the classroom, together.”

“As we’re kind of re-teaching kids how to be in school and why they should be engaged in class,” Maffuccio said, “I think the tutor’s presence in the class helps with that.”

The link between tutoring and attendance

Tutors are everywhere at Cardozo. On any given day, 25 tutors are working with students at the combined middle and high school. Many are college students or AmeriCorps members.

Now, many students don’t think twice about getting extra help because it’s become so common. Earlier this school year, 330 students were getting tutored at Cardozo — almost half of all students.

Shweta Raman, a tutor with Math Matters at The George Washington University, works with Debela, a sixth grader at Cardozo.

The work happening at Cardozo is part of a three-year, $33 million initiative run by D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education with the help of federal COVID relief funding. To receive grant funding, schools agreed to follow certain tutoring best practices, such as keeping tutoring groups small, regularly pairing students with the same tutor, and offering at least 90 minutes a week of intensive help. (A rigorous study of the program’s academic effects is ongoing, but officials say there’s been promising early evidence that the high-dosage tutoring has helped struggling students improve in math and reading.)

As part of that initiative, Stanford researchers looked at attendance records for nearly 4,500 students who received intensive math or reading tutoring during the 2022-23 school year. That included students from Cardozo and 141 other D.C. schools.

The better attendance on tutoring days added up to students getting, on average, an extra two days of instruction over the course of the school year — and as much as five days if the student had been absent a lot.

The effect was most pronounced for middle schoolers, whose likelihood of attending school rose by 11% on days they had a scheduled tutoring session.

The research didn’t look at what exactly made students want to come to school more. But researchers and school staff have some ideas, based on feedback they’ve collected from students and what they’ve observed.

They think the consistency and frequency with which students met with their tutors was likely important. Many students liked the more-personalized attention and wanted to spend time with their tutors. Others wanted to come to school more when they did better academically.

“That individual relationship that they’re building in that tutoring session seems like it could be one of those things” boosting engagement, said Nancy Waymack, who directs research partnerships for the National Student Support Accelerator. “If tutoring is having a positive academic effect on that student, they’re also more likely to be able to be successful in their day-to-day schoolwork, which would also make it more attractive to be at school.”

At Cardozo, Maffuccio has seen that students who may feel intimidated by the idea of asking their teacher for help will feel comfortable turning to a tutor, who may seem more like a big brother or an auntie.

“Students’ personalities come out a lot because not every sentence that they speak with their tutor has to be on task,” Maffuccio said. “I see joking and just kind of talking about their lives. That’s really an important part of the relationship-building — that’s how the space becomes safe for students to try and potentially fail.”

Some tutors end up connecting with students outside of class, too. One tutor who works with ninth graders in their English language arts class, for example, now coaches Cardozo’s middle school soccer team and has close relationships with lots of the players.

Tutors start from ‘a really upbeat, positive place’

Isabelle Jennings Pickering started tutoring at Cardozo in October. Jennings Pickering, known to students as Miss J, works mostly with ninth and 12th graders in their history classes, and she also helps students with their English and reading fluency.

As she gets to know a student, she starts by asking them personal questions — Do they play sports? What music are they listening to? — before diving into the academic material.

Lucia Vallejo, a tutor with Math Matters at The George Washington University, works with Cristian, a sixth grader at Cardozo.

Last semester, for example, when she started working with 17-year-old Miguel several times a week in his D.C. history class, she noticed that he loved talking about music and culture, but it was harder to talk about what was tripping him up in class.

So they “started from a really upbeat, positive place,” by chatting in Spanish and trading notes about their favorite Salvadoran foods. After that, it was easier to talk about academic “concerns and fears and sticky places,” Jennings Pickering said.

Speaking English can be scary for Miguel and many other students whose first language isn’t English, Jennings Pickering said. So she tries to make the tutoring session a safe place where students won’t shut down if she gently corrects their pronunciation.

“It’s often the thought that school isn’t for me, and reading isn’t for me, or English isn’t for me,” she said. “And fighting through that can be the biggest hurdle.”

When she’s able to help students see that learning just one new word or sentence is a success, “that’s huge,” she said.

Since he started working with a tutor, Miguel says he feels more comfortable in class and he’s getting his assignments done faster, too. And he’s proud he can now use the transitional words that Miss J taught him in his essays.

Among his go-tos?

“Therefore” and “however.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Problema corregido en la FAFSA abre el formulario para muchas familias inmigrantes

2024-03-21T22:50:12+00:00

Read in English.

Muchos estudiantes sintieron alivio la semana pasada cuando los funcionarios federales de educación anunciaron correcciones críticas a la solicitud federal de ayuda financiera para permitir que los padres sin número de Seguro Social poder poner información en el formulario.

El cambio significa que decenas de miles de estudiantes ciudadanos de EE.UU. y otros que son elegibles para recibir ayuda financiera federal ahora pueden finalmente completar sus solicitudes FAFSA. Por otro lado, también significa que las familias y los orientadores universitarios están luchando para completar el proceso meses después que otros estudiantes. Y algunas familias todavía están teniendo problemas.

“Puede ser muy desalentador para los estudiantes y las familias, que sienten que están haciendo todo lo correcto y de todos modos siguen enfrentando obstáculos”, dijo Amanda Seider, a cargo de la oficina de Massachusetts del grupo de acceso a la universidad OneGoal.

Chalkbeat reportó en enero que un error técnico había impedido por más de dos meses que los hijos de padres indocumentados completaran sus solicitudes de ayuda financiera. Como resultado, a muchos educadores y grupos de acceso a la universidad les preocupaba que esos retrasos pudieran ser un impedimento adicional para los estudiantes que ya se enfrentan a mayores barreras para ir a la universidad — lo cual se sumaba a la ya complicada publicación de la FAFSA nueva y supuestamente más fácil de llenar. Algunas universidades y becas conceden las ayudas financieras por orden de solicitud, y por lo tanto los estudiantes que llenan la solicitud más tarde están en desventaja.

Durante ese tiempo, los estudiantes tuvieron que navegar por una variedad confusa de opciones, entre las que se incluía no hacer nada y esperar a que el problema se resolviera, o probar una solución parcial que podía ponerles en mayor riesgo de cometer un error en la solicitud o hacer que tuvieran que llenar más papeleo después.

Y aún quedan problemas pendientes. Mientras los funcionarios federales ponían en marcha la solución nueva, descubrieron otros dos problemas adicionales que afectan al mismo grupo de estudiantes y que todavía están por resolverse.

Esto significa que los padres que no tienen número de Seguro Social tendrán que poner su información financiera manualmente, en lugar de transferirla directamente del IRS. Y en algunos casos — por ejemplo, cuando uno de los padres pone un nombre o dirección que no coincide exactamente con la información que su hijo puso — los padres todavía reciben mensajes de error que les impiden llenar el formulario. Los funcionarios federales dijeron la semana pasada que trabajarían para solucionar el problema “en los próximos días”.

Los funcionarios federales calcularon que alrededor de un 2% de los solicitantes de ayuda financiera fueron afectados por el error original del número de Seguro Social, lo que sería equivalente a cientos de miles de estudiantes en un año típico.

El asunto llamó la atención de docenas de miembros demócratas de la Cámara, que enviaron una carta a Miguel Cardona, Secretario de Educación de EE.UU., pidiéndole al departamento que solucionara el problema rápidamente. En un comunicado de prensa publicado la semana pasada, el Rep. Jared Huffman de California dijo que el error técnico fue un “error completamente inaceptable” que había causado “miedo, estrés y pérdida de oportunidades para muchos niños de mi distrito y del país”.

“Espero que el Departamento tome las medidas necesarias para asegurar que nunca ocurran problemas como este”, dijo Huffman.

La publicación de la FAFSA nueva ha estado plagada de problemas y retrasos. Los funcionarios del Departamento de Educación le han echado la culpa a la falta de fondos y a retos técnicos significativos al actualizar los sistemas viejos. Los republicanos han acusado a la administración de estar distraída con la iniciativa de perdonar los préstamos estudiantiles. Según las noticias, observadores externos han dicho que todos estos y otros factores jugaron un papel.

Según datos federales rastreados por la National College Attainment Network, hay un 33% menos solicitudes de FAFSA en comparación con esta fecha el año pasado.

Por el momento, muchas universidades han retrasado las fechas límite mientras esperan por la información financiera de los estudiantes que les ayudará a preparar los paquetes de ayuda. Y las familias están esperando.

Ahora, los consejeros y orientadores universitarios dicen que están trabajando para asegurar que los estudiantes sepan qué hacer si siguen encontrando errores técnicos. También están tratando de mantener el ánimo de los estudiantes y prepararlos para comparar sus paquetes de ayuda financiera y aceptación cuando los reciban.

“Lo más importante que podemos hacer es compartir información sobre cómo poner la información manualmente, cómo asegurar que sean muy precisos al completar esos pasos”, dijo Seider. “Realmente queremos asegurar que los estudiantes y las familias estén siendo proactivos y no sientan que todo esto es por falta suya, sino que piensen: ‘Este sistema ha sido un poco confuso, necesitamos que nos ayuden’”.

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación con sede en Chicago. Se habla español. Para comunicarte con ella, escríbele a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Milly Suazo-Martinez

Long-awaited FAFSA fix means students from immigrant families can finally finish aid applications

2024-03-18T20:41:17+00:00

Leer en español

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Many students breathed a sigh of relief last week when federal education officials announced critical fixes to the federal application for financial aid that allows parents without Social Security numbers to contribute information to the form.

The change means tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others who are eligible for federal financial aid can finally complete their FAFSAs. But it also leaves families and college counselors scrambling to get through the process months after other students. And some families are still encountering problems.

“It can be very discouraging for students and families who feel like they’re doing all the right things and yet are still coming up against barriers,” said Amanda Seider, who oversees the Massachusetts branch of the college access group OneGoal.

Chalkbeat reported in January that a technical glitch had blocked students with undocumented parents from completing their financial aid applications for over two months. That left many educators and college access groups worried that students who already face higher barriers to college would be deterred by the delays — piled on top of an already difficult rollout of the new, supposedly easier FAFSA. Some colleges and scholarships award aid on a first-come, first-served basis, so students who apply later are at a disadvantage.

During that time, students were left to navigate a confusing array of options, including whether they should just sit tight and wait for a fix, or try a partial workaround that could put them at a higher risk of making a mistake on their application or would require them to come back and fill out more paperwork later.

And there are still outstanding issues. As federal officials put the new fix in place, they uncovered two more issues affecting the same group of students that still need to be resolved.

That means parents without Social Security numbers will have to enter their financial information manually, instead of having it pulled directly from the IRS. And in some cases — when a parent enters a name or address that doesn’t exactly match what their child put down, for example — parents are still getting error messages that block them from filling out the form. Federal officials said last week they would work to fix the issue “in the coming days.”

Federal officials estimated that around 2% of financial aid applicants were affected by the original Social Security number glitch, which would equate to hundreds of thousands of students in a typical year.

The issue caught the attention of dozens of Democratic House members, who sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urging the department to fix the problem quickly. In a press release issued last week, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California said the glitch was a “completely unacceptable error” that had caused “fear, stress, and missed opportunities for many kids across my district and the country.”

“I hope to see the Department take the steps necessary to ensure issues like this never arise again,” Huffman said.

The rollout of the new FAFSA has been riddled with problems and delays. Education department officials have blamed insufficient funding and significant technical challenges in updating old systems. Republicans have accused the administration of being distracted by dealing with student loan forgiveness. Outside observers have said all these factors and more played a role, according to news reports.

FAFSA applications are down 33% compared with this time last year, according to federal data tracked by the National College Attainment Network.

In the meantime, many colleges have pushed back deadlines as they wait for student financial information that will help them assemble aid packages. And families are waiting.

Now, college counselors and advisers say they’re working to make sure students know what to do if they continue to encounter glitches. They’re also trying to keep students’ spirits up and getting them ready to compare their financial aid and acceptance packages when they come in.

“The most important thing we can do is to share information about how to go about entering information manually, how to make sure that as they are completing those steps that it requires a lot of precision,” Seider said. “We really want to make sure that students and families are being proactive, and not experiencing this as their shortcoming, but rather saying ‘Hey, this system has been a little confusing, we need some help with it.’”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

This New York City counselor used to teach math. Now she helps migrant students destress at school

2024-03-15T14:00:08+00:00

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As a middle school math teacher, Lisset Condo Dutan’s days often revolved around fractions and equations. But when the pandemic hit, her virtual classroom became a place where students came to confide in her.

“I would only see them through a screen, and they would share with me: I lost my grandma, I just lost my dad, I just lost my mom,” she said. She tried her best to listen, but she knew they needed more. “They didn’t really have the emotional support that they needed.”

Lisset Condo Dutan works with newcomer students at an elementary school in Queens through the nonprofit Counseling in Schools.

Driven by those conversations, Condo Dutan went back to school to get her master’s in counseling — while she was teaching full-time — and became a school counselor.

Last fall, she took a position with the nonprofit Counseling in Schools, which places school counselors in dozens of schools throughout New York City. Condo Dutan now works at P.S. 149 in Queens, not far from where she grew up. She was among a dozen bilingual or bicultural counselors that the nonprofit hired to meet the needs of a growing number of migrant students who’ve enrolled in the city’s schools.

Now, she spends her days popping into classrooms to see if newcomers need any help and meeting with students in small groups or one-on-one.

“Even though they went through a lot, they’re the strongest people that I’ve ever met,” she said. “I admire that.”

Condo Dutan spoke with Chalkbeat about how art therapy, breathing exercises, and sharing details from her visits to Ecuador have helped her connect with her students.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What are some of the mental health or social-emotional needs that your newcomer students have?

A lot of them have undergone some sort of trauma. Especially when they share their journey coming here to New York, either what they saw on their way here or what they saw at the detention centers at the border. It impacts them a lot.

Thankfully, a lot of the teachers pick up on these little emotions. Maybe they walk in sad one day or they look upset, or there’s a change in behavior. They’ll ask: Can you please just check up on the student? And when you check up on them, you realize that there’s a lot of things that are still bothering them.

They’ll share: You know, I had this nightmare, I’m still thinking about this. I remember when we were crossing the river. Or, honestly speaking, they’ve seen people pass away on their way here. Unfortunately, they’ve seen bodies and stuff like that. And these are third graders, second graders, fifth graders.

That’s still there for them. So, sometimes they do have days where they’re a little off. [It’s important] to provide them with that support and that safe space.

When you’re starting to build a relationship and a rapport with a student who has been through a really tough journey, what are some of the things you do to help establish that you’re a safe person and that they’re in a safe place?

I let them speak about their culture. A lot of these students are very proud of where they come from, so I give them that opportunity and that time to teach me about themselves.

Sometimes, we’ll share memories. But usually, we do a lot of art therapy. For most of them, that’s easier. Markers, crayons, glitter, pens, paints — anything that I have in the office.

They’re drawing their favorite dishes, their favorite places, or their favorite people that they left behind, as well as their pets or any traditional celebrations. For example, for Christmas, they shared that certain countries have a whole festival for like a week. They would draw bumper cars and parties, and certain cultural outfits.

What are some of the acculturation struggles that you’re seeing?

Usually, what they share is that it’s just hard overall. In their countries, they would have more freedom. There would be much more fresh air and free space for them to run around. Coming here and being in an apartment, or being stuck in school, it’s different for them.

They’ve slowly been getting accustomed to school life. It’s been a lot of teaching them how to schedule their time, time management, as well as asking them what other resources they need in order to feel comfortable.

What strategies or coping skills have you taught students that they’ve found helpful?

We’ve done a lot of breathing exercises. Sometimes [their exposure to trauma] does get them a little uneasy. They really like [an exercise called] smell the flower, blow out the birthday cake candle.

I usually ask them: If I had a flower in my hand, how would you smell the flower? And they would inhale and breathe in. And when I ask them to blow out a birthday candle, they blow out through their mouth. It teaches them how to not take quick breaths.

I’ve also done a lot of cooked spaghetti, uncooked spaghetti. I have students basically tense up every part of their body. So they’ll become very stiff, like uncooked spaghetti. And then I allow them to become like cooked spaghetti, very noodly, so they let go of everything.

It’s allowing them to take notice of what part of their body is under stress, and teaching them how to express themselves when they feel that stress.

How does being able to speak Spanish allow you to connect with the students in ways that wouldn’t be possible if you didn’t speak their language?

Instead of having to translate what they’re feeling, they’re able to just express themselves exactly how they feel.

If I don’t understand something, I do ask them: Oh, what do you mean by this? It could be because of cultural differences. I take that time to let them teach me about what they’re trying to say, or what they’re trying to get out.

Do you ever share things about yourself with the students to help make a connection with them?

My parents are Ecuadorian, and I do bring that to the table. When I go to Ecuador, I visit my grandpa, I go to the countryside, I go to the city, and I’m able to share that with them. Even if the child is not from Ecuador, they’re more open to opening up to me because they realize: She’s been outside of New York, she understands what’s going on in other countries.

Lisset Condo Dutan often shares stories about visiting her family in Ecuador as a way to connect with the students she works with.

They ask me: Have you tasted salchipapas? Have you tasted a traditional dish called tripa mishqui? I’m open to sharing that information with them, and they’re usually very happy [to talk about it].

Where my grandpa lives, it’s like a farmland. A lot of them came from farmland. So, me being able to say: You know, when I go to Ecuador, I spend a week with my grandpa, and I help him feed the cows and feed the horses. That usually sparks something in them. They look at me like: You did that? I used to do that! Little things like that have really helped me connect with them.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Grocery cards and car repairs: How COVID aid changed the way schools can help homeless kids

2024-03-14T21:15:14+00:00

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Mollie Eppers tried for years to give students experiencing homelessness prepaid grocery cards that would allow their families to shop for food.

But the student services specialist in Juneau, Alaska, couldn’t devise a system that would satisfy the spending rules for both her local school district and the federal program that helps homeless students.

So when Congress sent schools COVID aid for homeless students with fewer restrictions, Eppers knew her first order of business: Get the grocery cards.

She found a local Safeway that accepted prepaid cards, then bought them in bulk. Families can get $100 to $200 cards at a time, depending on how many kids they have. The aid has made it easier for families sleeping in their cars or who don’t have a stove to choose foods they can eat. That’s been especially helpful as Alaska works through a huge backlog of applications for food benefits that left many families waiting months to get aid.

The Juneau School District in Alaska purchased $25,000 in grocery cards to help students experiencing homelessness buy food.

“It’s been a lifesaver,” said Eppers, who’s spent $25,000 on grocery cards so far, and plans to buy more. “They don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Across the country, Eppers and other school staff are doing things to help homeless students that they’ve never been able to before. That’s in part due to the size of the aid package. But it’s also because federal education officials said explicitly that schools could spend this money on items like prepaid store cards, gas cards, and cell phones that schools were often reluctant to buy in the past for fear of running afoul of various spending and record-keeping rules.

That’s meant more schools are providing families with direct aid that allows them to choose which foods, clothing, and other supplies will best meet their children’s needs. It’s one more way that schools have stretched beyond their typical roles and used pandemic assistance to help families in dire straits in new ways.

But schools might stop doing this soon — unless federal officials spell out that other funds can be used like this, too.

“You can provide somebody a pair of shoes, but if you say: ‘Here’s a store card, pick out the shoes for your child that your child will wear,’ there is a sense of dignity, and there’s also a sense of agency,” said Barbara Duffield, the executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection, which recently gathered data on how often schools are spending COVID aid in this way. “And what that has translated to is trust and engagement. A store card is much more than a store card.”

Schools used to face more limits on helping students

In a survey of more than 1,400 school liaisons earlier this school year, SchoolHouse Connection found that 40% had purchased gas cards for families and 34% had bought store cards. That was double the share who planned to purchase cards when the nonprofit did a similar survey in 2021.

“These unusual uses may be the very ones that are the most impactful and strategic in meeting broader goals of increasing enrollment, attendance, and performance,” the report concludes.

In Washington state, one liaison said gas cards were now among the top-requested forms of assistance by families. The offering made families feel heard and open to more collaboration, the liaison wrote on the survey.

In Rhode Island, another liaison said that it had been a “huge plus” to give families store cards so they could buy sneakers and underwear. “I would argue that being able to make their own selections is better for the kids, physically and emotionally,” the liaison wrote.

In the past, some schools did provide this kind of assistance to homeless students. But Duffield said it often boiled down to a judgment call.

The federal education law that outlines the rights of homeless children, the McKinney-Vento Act, says that schools can provide “extraordinary or emergency assistance” to make sure homeless kids can attend school and participate in school activities.

While some schools interpreted that to include prepaid store cards, many other districts or states didn’t allow schools to buy store cards. Officials worried about how they would show the cards benefitted a particular student, Duffield said, and some feared giving away prepaid cards could be ripe for misuse or fraud — a long held, and often misplaced, complaint among critics of public assistance programs.

For that reason, Duffield and others are calling on the federal government to issue guidance saying that schools can use McKinney-Vento funding in the same ways that were permissible with the COVID aid.

“Having clear federal guidance saying that you can, that then shapes what a state allows,” Duffield said. Getting something in writing is key, because many school business officers will ask: “Where does it say that?”

How cell phones and car repairs help students

Still, school liaisons like Eppers say they’re taking lots of precautions. The grocery cards Eppers hands out to families don’t allow for the purchase of alcohol or tobacco, and she locks up the cards in her office to keep them safe. Families have to sign for each grocery card, too.

“I don’t want anything to come between my ability to provide that to the students,” she said.

In the suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin, Claire Bergman used COVID aid to buy five cell phones with internet hotspots for homeless teens who live on their own without the support of their parents. Each month, the Sun Prairie Area School District pays their phone bills.

The new initiative has helped social workers stay in touch with students who tend to move around a lot and may be parents themselves. That’s helped ensure their ride to school shows up in the right place and that students are connected with child care.

The phone hotspots enable unaccompanied teens to use the internet on their school-provided Chromebooks, so they can do their homework wherever they’re staying. And the district also allows the teens to download certain social media apps so they can stay in touch with classmates — an added benefit for kids who often feel isolated from their peers.

“The phones have really opened up lines of communication and supported attendance efforts,” Bergman said. That success has helped Bergman make the case the district should keep paying for cell phones when the COVID aid is gone.

“Our business office has been really open to exploring different opportunities and understanding the connection piece of the phones,” she said. “Once these funds run out, it will be a little bit more of a: ‘Is this really a priority?’ question.”

In North Dakota’s Bismarck Public Schools, COVID relief funding has allowed Sherrice Roness to make more “outside the box” purchases that she is hoping to continue, too.

With COVID aid, the district now covers up to $500 in critical car repairs, such as fixing brakes or power steering. It’s a strategy advocates for homeless youth say can be more cost-effective than paying for a bus pass or taxi, and it has the added benefit of helping families get to work and doctor’s visits, in addition to taking their children to school.

“It gives them that pride of: They’re able to do that — provide that normalcy for their kids,” Roness said.

Roness has also paid for children’s medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when a family’s insurance has lapsed, and she purchased a post office box so a 17-year-old who was no longer living with her parents could still get her college and financial aid letters in the mail.

When unique needs like that pop up, Roness said, it’s made a big difference to be able to tell students: “You know what? I can help you with that.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Biden education budget proposal includes $8 billion to extend pandemic recovery work like tutoring

2024-03-11T21:56:58+00:00

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With a deadline looming to spend pandemic education dollars, the Biden administration has proposed making another $8 billion available to states and school districts to encourage better attendance and support academic recovery through tutoring and summer school.

The idea is a key component of President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for the U.S. Department of Education for fiscal year 2025, and represents an acknowledgment that schools still have a lot of work to do to recover from pandemic learning disruptions. The proposal comes a few months after the Biden administration called on schools to prioritize spending remaining COVID relief funding in these same areas.

The president’s budget proposal, announced Monday, also calls for modest increases to federal programs supporting high-poverty schools, students learning English as a second language, and students with disabilities. The administration also wants more money to support the Office for Civil Rights, and a $750 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award to help make college more affordable.

The White House budget plan will almost certainly not be adopted as written. It heads to a dysfunctional Congress that has careened between threats of government shutdown and short-term spending resolutions. The Republicans who control the House have been particularly hostile to Biden’s efforts to increase spending in several areas , including the Title I program that supports high-poverty schools.

Overall the budget proposal calls for more than $82 billion in discretionary spending for the education department, a 4% increase from this year.

Officials emphasized that this budget proposal complies with spending caps agreed to in last year’s bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act, while still investing in initiatives they hope will improve student success.

“When it comes to education, this budget is about raising the bar,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a call with reporters. “There are historic investments promised on top of historic investments delivered.”

Budget offers way to continue tutoring, attendance outreach

American schools received a combined $190 billion in assistance across three pandemic aid packages and have until September to spend any remaining money. Many schools have come to rely on their tutoring programs and want to keep them going after the pandemic aid expires.

But how they’ll fund them has been a big question. Some states have pledged added tutoring funds, but many districts would likely struggle to keep providing intensive help to students without making cuts elsewhere in their budget.

Similarly, the rate at which students are missing lots of school remains well above pre-pandemic levels in many parts of the country. Many schools launched home visit programs or hired staff specifically to work with kids who aren’t attending regularly, but school leaders say it will take additional time and investment to re-engage students and continue to boost attendance rates.

Expanded summer school programs were a popular investment during the pandemic, though they’ve been only moderately successful in helping students catch up. They’ve also been a common place school leaders have scaled back as COVID relief funding has wound down.

The proposed $8 billion in new money isn’t intended to replace pandemic assistance but would supplement current efforts. Officials envision a competitive grant program that would prioritize high-poverty schools, schools in communities especially hard-hit by COVID, and schools identified as needing academic improvement under federal accountability rules.

More money for English learners, civil rights investigations

Biden’s budget proposal calls for a 1.1% increase, or $200 million, to local grants in the Title I program, which provides money to low-income schools. Earlier in his administration, Biden called on Congress to double spending on Title I, but that hasn’t come to fruition. Congressional Republicans have questioned whether schools need more money after the pandemic stimulus, and last year, they sought to significantly cut Title I spending.

Cardona characterized this budget as defending public education from a “slash-and-burn” approach that would endanger the futures of American students.

Similarly, the White House is proposing a 1.4% increase in spending to support K-12 special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as additional money for infants, toddlers, and preschool students with disabilities and grants to recruit special education teachers. Advocates have long called for the federal government to increase special education funding. Federal law lays out disabled students’ educational rights but leaves most of the costs to states and school districts.

The budget proposal calls for a roughly 5% increase or $50 million in new spending for Title III, which supports English learners.

Biden’s budget proposal also includes an extra $22 million, a 16% increase, for the Office for Civil Rights, which conducts investigations into allegations of discrimination in schools. Recently, the department announced it is looking into several incidents involving antisemitism or anti-Muslim discrimination at colleges and K-12 schools since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October.

The budget also calls for increased funding for preschool, student mental health, and community schools, which provide a wide range of services to support students and their families, as well as programs to encourage diverse candidates to enter the teaching profession.

The budget proposal includes a few cuts as well, including a 9% or $40 million reduction in a program that supports new charter schools and the replication of high-quality charter models.

Budget seeks to mitigate college costs

Biden’s budget blueprint would also increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $8,145, a 10% increase from current levels. Pell grants are available to college students from low-income families, and unlike loans, do not need to be repaid.

Budget analysts have warned of a looming shortfall in the Pell program after Congress expanded eligibility at the same time more students are heading back to college. The most recent continuing resolution to keep the federal government open walks back some of that recent expansion.

Advocates have argued that the maximum Pell award should be closer to $13,000 to keep pace with tuition increases and keep the door open to college for students of modest means.

The budget would increase funding for programs that allow high school students to earn college credit before graduating and for grants that help colleges support first-generation students and increase graduation rates.

The budget also calls for partnerships with states and tribes to make two years of community college free for students going to college for the first time and workers looking to change careers. Free community college was one of several education proposals that Biden ran on in 2020 that hasn’t gotten traction.

And the budget calls for more investment in the Office of Federal Student Aid amid a rocky rollout of a new federal financial aid form.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Many migrant students need mental health support. Here’s why this program is a go-to for schools.

2024-03-11T09:00:00+00:00

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When thousands of Syrian families fleeing violence resettled in Canada several years ago, Ontario’s school mental health agency wanted to give schools tools to help refugee children process their traumatic journeys and adjust to their new lives.

The children didn’t necessarily need intensive support. But kids were bursting into tears and struggling to explain how they felt. Parents, too, noticed their usually social children had become more withdrawn and were struggling to make friends. That was especially common after kids had been in Canada for a few months and the honeymoon period ended.

So a team of experts in child mental health put their heads together and developed a program for newcomers that focuses on their strengths and who they can turn to for support. Known as STRONG, the program is now used across the U.S. in several cities serving lots of newcomers, including Chicago, Boston, Seattle, New York, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and Little Rock, Arkansas. Many others are asking for training, as schools struggle to meet the needs of students who’ve been through difficult journeys with limited school mental health staff, and even fewer bilingual ones.

STRONG, which stands for Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups, can’t solve everything. Some kids may still need more intensive mental health support — and finding the time and staff to run these groups can be challenging. But many experts, educators, and students themselves see the intervention as a promising tool to help newcomers forge connections and head off mental health struggles before they turn into a crisis.

“They’ve just really appreciated the opportunity to connect with other kids,” said Lisa Baron, a psychologist who trains schools to use STRONG and directs the Boston-based Center for Trauma Care in Schools. “A lot of them said that they just had not really known that other kids were feeling the same way as they were.”

Why some newcomers struggle with mental health

Newcomer students can be refugees or asylum-seekers or the children of undocumented immigrants. Some arrive with families, some arrive alone. Some have been in the U.S. for just a few days or weeks, while others have been here longer. And while their experiences vary, they’ve often faced various hardships, from hunger to abuse.

Many children did not feel in control during their travels, and now crave stability and predictability.

It can also be difficult for newcomer families to access mental health services in the U.S. — driving home the importance of offering help at school. There’s often stigma around seeking treatment, and some families fear that doing so could put them at risk for deportation.

Here’s how STRONG typically works: The school identifies a group of students who are close in age and relatively new to the U.S. who could benefit from extra support. Then the school makes sure parents are on board, which can mean having careful conversations, especially if families are unfamiliar with schools offering mental health support.

The group meets for 10 sessions, usually during the school day. Early sessions help students understand that it’s normal to feel overwhelmed or stressed sometimes. Kids learn different relaxation techniques, such as curling their toes into the floor as if they were standing in a mud puddle, or visualizing the sights and smells of a favorite place.

In later sessions, they learn coping and problem-solving skills, such as how to map out steps to achieve a goal. Kids who are shy about speaking English could identify people they’d feel safe practicing with.

“The coping skills [are] what will stay with you forever,” one Ontario student told Canadian researchers for a 2019 report. “Whenever you are in a stressful situation, you will always remember what to do.”

In STRONG, students learn various problem-solving and coping skills.

What makes STRONG unique and appealing to many schools, said Colleen Cicchetti, a pediatric psychologist who helped develop the intervention, is that it takes a strengths-based approach.

“There were strengths that were inside you that you had in your home country that are still with you, here, today — how do we build on them?” said Cicchetti, who directs the Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and now trains schools on how to use STRONG. “We really want young people and their parents to say: ‘This is a part of who I am and what I’ve experienced, but it shouldn’t define who I am entirely.’”

That’s what attracted the attention of mental health and school staff in the Madison, Wisconsin area. The district tried tweaking another group that addresses student trauma to help newcomers, but realized it wasn’t quite meeting their needs.

Kids need to “talk about good memories and coping strategies, not necessarily the exposure to the traumatic event,” said Carrie Klein, a school mental health coach for Madison Metro schools, which is considering using STRONG.

For Jennifer Moorhouse, a teacher who works with English learners at Brighton Park Elementary School in Chicago, STRONG has been transformative for her and her students.

Related: Amid Chicago’s migrant influx, one school is trying to help newcomer students navigate trauma

Over the last year, Moorhouse has run four STRONG groups — known as “clubs” at her school — alongside school counselor Stephanie Carrillo. The program helped Moorhouse get to know newcomers’ families, and has made students comfortable to seek her out when they need essentials like toothpaste or body wash.

Brighton Park Elementary School threw a quinceañera for newcomer students who were sad they would miss celebrating in their home country.

The group has helped in unexpected ways, too. When kids said they weren’t eating at school because they didn’t like the food, Moorhouse figured out they did like Ritz crackers and Skinny popcorn, so she keeps those on hand. And when she found out some newcomers were crying in the bathroom, upset that they were going to miss their quinceñera back home, the group threw a big party at school, complete with balloons and empanadas.

“The students really have created this bond with Ms. Moorhouse — that’s their person,” said Cecilia Mendoza, the assistant principal. “Every student needs someone. For someone new entering the country, entering a new school, having someone is even more important.”

Brighton Park is one of 83 schools across the district that’s been trained in STRONG, with another 50 schools in line to be trained next school year.

Why talking about their journeys can help newcomers

When experts first developed STRONG, they imagined it would be delivered by social workers, school counselors and other mental health staff, since many newcomers have experienced trauma.

But given that mental health professionals are often stretched or in short supply, more schools are asking for others to be trained, too, said Sharon Hoover, a psychiatry professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine who helped create STRONG.

Now, many schools run STRONG sessions with two adults. A teacher with language or cultural skills can act as the interpreter, while the staffer with mental health training takes on tasks such as screening children for post-traumatic stress.

“We don’t want to be irresponsible with the curriculum and just throw it into the hands of anybody who has no mental health training at all,” Hoover said. “But on the other hand, we don’t want to restrict it in a way that’s going to lead to it not getting to students who might benefit.”

On a recent Tuesday morning, Hoover and Bianca Ramos, a STRONG trainer, showed what a one-on-one session that invites students to share about their journey can look like during a virtual training for two dozen school staffers.

The group, mostly social workers and school counselors from Connecticut, had gathered to learn strategies to help newcomer students from many parts of the world, including Haiti, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Ukraine.

Related: We are facing a migrant mental health crisis. More school social workers could help

In the video demonstration, Hoover sat beside Ramos in the corner of a blue-walled room. Ramos, a Chicago-based social worker, played the role of a 13-year-old girl who’d fled Guatemala without time to say goodbye to family and friends after her father was killed. Hoover explained that talking about something hard can be like stepping into cold water.

“The more we do it, slowly and gradually, usually the more comfortable we get,” Hoover said. “You don’t have to dive right in.”

In early sessions of STRONG, students learn various relaxation techniques and that it's OK to feel stress sometimes.

In the scenario, as the young girl neared the U.S.-Mexico border, robbers threatened to take her family’s few belongings. Hoover asked how she got through that time, using it as an opportunity to draw out the child’s strengths.

“I had this picture of my mom and I just remember looking at it, and trying to stay hopeful that I was going to be able to see her again,” Ramos said. And she had her little sister to watch out for: “I was like a mom to her.”

“That’s amazing,” Hoover replied, pointing out how brave and caring the child had been.

Later, Hoover asked if the girl was having trouble sleeping, reliving any memories, or feeling sad a lot. She wasn’t, but thoughts of her dad did pop into her head in class, making it hard to concentrate. Hoover made sure that wasn’t happening too much, and then kept the door open to talk more in the future if anything changed.

In Chicago, Moorhouse has seen that some kids feel relieved when they share about their journey. But she also cautions that it can be a lot for other students and teachers to take in. After one student shared details that made Moorhouse tear up later, she realized she couldn’t probe too deeply in her conversations with the student, and needed to let the school counselor step in.

“We’re not therapists,” she said. “That’s very important for teachers to realize.”

STRONG can help students, but there are challenges

STRONG is still being rigorously evaluated in the U.S. But research conducted by Western University in Canada, where STRONG was first piloted during the 2017-18 school year, has shown promising results.

Evaluations from across Ontario found the program helped kids build trust, increase their confidence, and develop a sense of belonging at school. Students reported that STRONG helped them feel more welcome and connect with their peers.

STRONG can also shift school culture and help the entire staff become more attuned to newcomers’ needs. When Moorhouse notices certain patterns of behavior, she shares that with other teachers, so they can keep an eye out.

That could be explaining why some kids may not want to take off sweaters or jackets — after border agents took everything they had except for what they were wearing at the time — or that playing certain sounds, like chirping birds or rushing water, could be upsetting to kids whose journey involved swimming or walking through the jungle.

There can be practical challenges. School leaders may be hesitant to pull kids out of class for STRONG when they are struggling academically. Elizabeth Paquette, who’s part of the team that trains school staff in Ontario, said it can be tricky to get enough kids together in smaller schools and rural communities without resorting to virtual groups that can make it harder for students to make friends.

And if groups use more than two languages, the interpretation needs can take away from the group’s conversational flow.

Still, Moorhouse said the group can be a place for kids to talk about those academic struggles, whether they’re lost in class or frustrated because they already know the content, but can’t yet express themselves. This year, especially, kids want to talk about school stress even more than their journeys.

“They were struggling with: ‘Do I give up?’” Moorhouse said. And her message was: “Let’s keep finding other ways to work through this. What are your thoughts?”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Should kids learn about LGBTQ issues at school? Many teachers and teens say no, new surveys find.

2024-02-23T21:21:25+00:00

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Should elementary schoolers learn that people of the same gender can love each other? Do teens want to learn about how slavery’s legacy matters today? Should parents be able to opt their kids out of lessons they disagree with?

As Republican-dominated state legislatures limit how teachers talk about race and restrict transgender children’s access to bathrooms and sports, and as school board elections turn on book bans and parents’ rights, three new national studies from the Pew Research Center, the research corporation RAND, and the University of Southern California’s Center for Applied Research in Education shed light on how teachers, parents, and students themselves think about these questions.

For all the attention LGBTQ issues receive in national politics, teachers said topics related to gender identity and sexual orientation rarely come up. And many said they don’t believe these topics should be taught in school.

In fact, large swaths of the public also don’t think gender and sexuality should be discussed in school, the studies found. However, there were wide partisan divides, as well as differences along racial and ethnic lines.

Adults and teens felt more comfortable with teachers teaching about racism than LGBTQ issues. They were also more comfortable with teachers talking about past injustices than present-day inequality, and more comfortable with gay rights than trans rights. And they were more comfortable with any of these topics coming up at the high school level — though many teens reported their own discomfort.

So it is perhaps unsurprising that two-thirds of teachers in one study said they decided on their own to limit how they talked about potentially contentious issues. One reason: They feared confrontations with upset parents.

“The topics of race and LGBTQ issues are often lumped together in discussions about these so-called ‘culture wars’ and how that’s playing out in K-12 education,” said Luona Lin, a research associate at Pew. But teachers and students actually “feel very different about these two topics.”

Here are some of the major takeaways of the three new reports:

Many teachers are censoring themselves

More than a third of American teachers work in states with laws restricting how teachers talk about issues that are considered divisive or controversial. But a study released this month by the research organization RAND found local restrictions and teachers’ own fears are having an effect as well.

In a survey of 1,500 teachers taken last year, two-thirds reported deciding on their own to limit how they talked about social and political issues in the classroom. Meanwhile, about half of teachers told RAND they were subject to either a state or local restriction. These limits could be formal, such as a school board policy, or informal, such as a principal’s comments.

More than 80% of those who were subject to a local restriction said they had made changes to their teaching, regardless of state law. That should not be surprising, said Ashley Woo, an assistant policy researcher at RAND.

“If your principal is telling you to do something, that is the person who is there with you at the school and can see what is happening in your classroom,” she said.

At the same time, more than half of teachers who were not subject to any restrictions said they had limited how they talked about certain topics, with self-censoring more common in conservative communities but still widespread in liberal ones.

A major reason teachers cited for limiting instruction, especially in communities with local restrictions, was a fear of confrontation with upset parents and that their administration would not support them if they faced a challenge.

LGBTQ issues raised less often than racism in classrooms

Though LGBTQ issues are prominent in local and national politics, a report released this week reveals a striking finding: Most teachers say gender identity and sexual orientation hardly get discussed in class — and many teachers say they shouldn’t be.

According to a nationally representative survey conducted last fall by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, more than two-thirds of K-12 public school teachers said topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity rarely or never came up in their classroom last school year. Around 3 in 10 said the topics came up sometimes or often.

Half of teachers, meanwhile, said they thought students shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school, with an even higher share of elementary school teachers agreeing with that view.

The findings come as anti-trans legislation creates a more hostile environment for gender non-conforming youth in many states.

In contrast, more than half of teachers said they discussed topics related to racism or racial inequality at least sometimes. Around 4 in 10 teachers said the issues rarely or never came up.

Nearly two-thirds of teachers said students should learn about slavery and how it affects the lives of Black Americans today, while just under a quarter said slavery should be taught only as a component of history — without any bearing on the present.

Lin, the Pew report’s lead author, says it’s likely that school board policies, local politics, and state laws are influencing what teachers discuss, though the survey doesn’t measure those factors.

What should young kids learn about gender and sexuality?

In Searching for Common Ground, a study released this week by a team at the University of Southern California, researchers surveyed a representative sample of 3,900 adults, about half of them parents of school-aged children, and asked them about dozens of scenarios related to race, sexuality, and gender.

Democrats were more comfortable than Republicans with almost every scenario, with independents and others roughly in the middle. But even Democrats were less supportive of discussing gender identity or asking students’ pronouns in elementary school than discussing racism or different family structures.

Nearly half of all respondents thought it was appropriate for an elementary teacher to have a picture of their same-sex spouse on their desk. And almost as many were OK with elementary students reading a book about two male penguins adopting a baby penguin.

But just 30% of respondents and only half of Democrats thought it was appropriate for an elementary classroom to display LGBTQ-friendly decorations, such as a Pride flag.

Democrats were far more likely to want gay or trans children to see themselves reflected at school, while Republicans were far more likely to fear discussing these topics would change children, leading to them thinking they are gay or trans.

“The largest partisan examples seem to have to do with LGBTQ and family issues in elementary school,” said Morgan Polikoff, a USC education professor and one of the study’s lead authors. “Democrats think that kids can handle that and Republicans do not.”

The rollout of Advanced Placement African American Studies reflects widespread interest among some students and teachers in learning more diverse history, but some conservatives have targeted the course.

More students feel comfortable discussing racism than LGBTQ issues

Students in grades 8-12 also tend to feel less comfortable discussing LGBTQ issues than issues of race and racism at school, and are more likely to say they shouldn’t be learning about them, the Pew report found.

In a nationally representative survey of 13- to 17-year-olds conducted last fall, around 4 in 10 teens said they felt comfortable when topics related to racism or racial inequality came up in class.

But only around 3 in 10 said the same about topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. And just under half of teens said they shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school. That rate was somewhat higher for teens who identified as Republicans than Democrats.

Only 11% of teens, meanwhile, said they shouldn’t learn about slavery. Around half said they should learn about slavery and how it affects the lives of Black Americans today, while 40% said they should learn about slavery only in a historical context.

Black teens and teens who identify as Democrats were much more likely than white, Hispanic, or Republican teens to say they want to learn about how the legacy of slavery affects Black people today — a finding echoed among Black parents and Black teachers in other surveys.

Bridging these divides is tricky

The University of Southern California study found strong support for public education across the political spectrum.

But there’s a gap of nearly 39 percentage points between Democrats and Republicans on whether public schools should teach children to embrace differences. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats said yes, compared with just over a third of Republicans.

This underlying belief was a strong predictor of responses to specific scenarios. Those who said kids shouldn’t be taught to embrace differences also expressed more discomfort with race, gender, and sexuality being discussed in the classroom.

“Democrats on average think schools are exactly the place to do this — it’s one of the last places where everyone comes together regardless of their differences,” Polikoff said. “And Republicans don’t think that is an appropriate role for schools. And they think that because they perceive, in part correctly, that schools are a liberalizing force.”

There was broad support for parents having the right to opt their child out of certain lessons, but when researchers prompted respondents to consider downsides, such as their child missing out on the opportunity to learn critical thinking skills, support fell.

Understanding the values that drive differences and building on common ground, such as agreement that children should read books by authors of color and learn about historic injustices, could lead to a healthier conversation than what’s happening now.

“We need to have this conversation,” he said. “Instead we have Ron DeSantis saying we’ll ban everything, and Democrats sticking their fingers in their ears and saying you’re all bigots.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

¿Cómo se completa la FAFSA si un padre no tiene un número de Seguro Social?

2024-02-22T23:35:07+00:00

Actualizado: Problema corregido en la FAFSA abre el formulario para muchas familias inmigrantes

Los formularios de ayuda federal financiera, conocidos como la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes o FAFSA (por sus siglas en inglés), pueden dar acceso a mucho dinero para que los estudiantes paguen por sus estudios universitarios.

Los estudiantes que son ciudadanos estadounidenses, residentes permanentes y ciertos estudiantes sin ciudadanía pueden obtener ayuda financiera, sin importar el estatus migratorio de sus padres. Los estudiantes, los padres y el cónyuge del estudiante, si es un adulto casado, todos tienen que proporcionar información personal financiera para que los estudiantes reciban esta ayuda, aunque los padres o el cónyuge sean indocumentados.

Este año, hay un nuevo formulario que supuestamente es más simple y fácil—y los estudiantes de familias con bajos ingresos deben recibir más dinero que años anteriores. Pero el proceso ha tenido algunos problemas técnicos, especialmente si uno o ambos padres no tienen un número de Seguro Social. En este momento, el formulario disponible en línea no permite que esos padres proporcionen la información financiera necesaria—y eso significa que los estudiantes no pueden enviar sus formularios.

Los funcionarios federales dicen que el problema se solucionará a mediados de marzo. Mientras tanto, hay un par de alternativas disponibles si tu estudiante debe cumplir con las fechas límite de algún programa estatal, universitario o para solicitar becas en las próximas semanas.

Esto es lo que debes saber:

El primer paso es que los padres creen su propia cuenta.

Crea una cuenta de ayuda federal para estudiantes donde proporcionarás información. Los padres que no tengan un número de Seguro Social deben seguir las instrucciones para verificar su identidad a través de TransUnion. Para hacer esto, quizás sea necesario que proporciones ciertos documentos.

A veces TransUnion no tiene toda la información correcta. Si TransUnion no puede verificar tu identidad, llama al Centro de Información sobre Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FSAIC, por sus siglas en inglés) al 1-800-433-3243. Ahí abrirán un caso y te enviarán un mensaje por correo electrónico con instrucciones sobre el tipo de documentos que puedes proporcionar.

Los funcionarios federales dicen que están tratando de simplificar y facilitar este proceso, y que están agregando más agentes que hablan español para que contesten las llamadas.

El siguiente paso es proporcionar información financiera básica.

Ten a la mano tus declaraciones de impuestos de años anteriores, cheques de tus ingresos o salario e información bancaria mientras completas los formularios.

Este proceso es sencillo para las personas que tienen un número de Seguro Social. Para aquellas sin un número de Seguro Social, el proceso es un poco más complicado.

En este momento, si no tienes un número de Seguro Social, debes completar algunos pasos adicionales. Usa estas alternativas solo si tu estudiante necesita cumplir con ciertas fechas límite en las próximas semanas para una universidad o beca en particular. La razón es porque, más tarde, deberás regresar y hacer algunos cambios cuando los formularios se arreglen verdaderamente.

Puedes completar un formulario impreso. Haz clic aquí para encontrar el formulario en español. En la sección donde te piden un número de Seguro Social, ingresa todos ceros y proporciona un Número de Identificación Personal del Contribuyente o ITIN (por sus siglas en inglés) si tienes uno. Los padres pueden completar el formulario impreso sin pasar por el proceso para verificar su identidad.
Puedes usar una alternativa en el formulario en línea. No ingreses ningún número en el espacio donde piden el número de Seguro Social del padre o cónyuge. Al hacer esto, tendrás que ingresar manualmente la información sobre los ingresos e impuestos de la persona. El padre o cónyuge no debe completar su propio formulario todavía. Cuando haya un arreglo permanente en un par de semanas, el padre o cónyuge podrá regresar al formulario en línea, aprobar su información y agregar su firma.

Si tu estudiante no necesita cumplir con ciertas fechas límite en las próximas semanas, los funcionarios federales recomiendan esperar hasta que el problema se solucione para que puedas usar el proceso más simple en línea que otras familias usan.

¿Qué se debe hacer si el estudiante no tiene un número de Seguro Social?

La mayoría de los estudiantes que no tienen un número de Seguro Social no cumplen con los requisitos para obtener ayuda financiera federal. Sin embargo, algunos estados ofrecen ayuda financiera a ciertos estudiantes indocumentados. Hablen con el asesor universitario en la escuela de tu hijo o en la oficina de ayuda financiera en las universidades a las que enviaron una solicitud de admisión.

¿Tienes más preguntas?

Hablen con el asesor universitario en la escuela de tu hijo. Recuerden que no tienen que pasar solos por este proceso. El gobierno federal calcula que cientos de miles de estudiantes han sido afectados por este problema, así que muchas personas enfrentan las mismas dificultades.

El gobierno federal también ofrece un centro de ayuda telefónica llamando al 1-800-433-3243. Advertencia: el tiempo de espera puede ser largo.

Lee más: Familias inmigrantes tienen problemas para completar la FAFSA. Aquí te informamos.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación con sede en Chicago. Se habla español. Para comunicarte con ella, envíale un email a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

¿No puedes llenar la FAFSA en línea? Esto es lo que debes saber sobre la solicitud impresa

2024-02-21T17:40:42+00:00

Read in English.

Como muchos estudiantes siguen teniendo problemas técnicos que les impiden presentar la solicitud de ayuda financiera federal en línea, existe una posible solución: un formulario en papel, como se hacía antes.

Pero las organizaciones de acceso a la universidad y los expertos en ayuda financiera advierten que para muchos estudiantes, ésta podría no ser la mejor alternativa.

Esto es lo que debes saber antes de llenar la versión impresa de la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes, o FAFSA:

¿Qué es el formulario FAFSA impreso? ¿Dónde lo consigo?

Los funcionarios federales han publicado durante mucho tiempo una versión en papel de la FAFSA, aunque solo una pequeña porción de los estudiantes presentaron una copia impresa en los últimos años, razón por la cual es posible que no hayas oído hablar de ella antes.

La copia impresa de la FAFSA en inglés está aquí, y en español aquí.

¿Por qué podría considerar llenar un formulario FAFSA en papel?

Ahora mismo, los padres que no tienen número de Seguro Social no pueden añadir su información a la solicitud en línea de ayuda financiera universitaria de sus hijos, y en algunos casos, es posible que no puedan obtener credenciales para entrar al sistema en línea.

Esto se debe a un problema técnico y los funcionarios federales dicen que están trabajando para solucionarlo. Un alto funcionario del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. le dijo a la prensa el lunes que los funcionarios se están reuniendo a diario para tratar de resolver el problema, pero en este momento no es posible decir cuándo se resolverá. Este problema ha impedido que miles de estudiantes cuyos padres son inmigrantes puedan llenar la FAFSA.

El formulario en papel permite que los padres y cónyuges sin números de Seguro Social llenen esa información con ceros, como podían hacer en años anteriores en línea, y que indiquen un número de identificación individual del contribuyente, o ITIN, si lo tienen. Los padres pueden llenar el formulario en papel sin pasar por el proceso de verificación de identidad que impide que algunos obtengan las credenciales de acceso en línea.

Si tu universidad, estado u organización de becas tiene una fecha límite estricta para presentar la FAFSA, y esa fecha se está acercando, quizás debas considerar llenar el formulario en papel como una forma de cumplir con esa fecha límite. Una vez que envíes el formulario en papel por correo, el día en que se reciba la solicitud en el correo se marcará como la fecha de recibo.

¿Debo esperar a que se arregle el formulario en línea en lugar de llenar el formulario en papel?

Si no tienes una fecha límite para presentar la FAFSA dentro de poco, podría ser mejor que esperes a que se arregle el formulario en línea, dijo MorraLee Keller, directora senior de la organización sin fines de lucro National College Attainment Network.

Esto se debe a que los formularios en papel se procesarán después de las solicitudes en línea, por lo que te arriesgas a estar más atrás en la cola de procesamiento si optas por enviar un formulario impreso. Esto es importante porque algunas universidades otorgan las ayudas por orden de llegada.

Los funcionarios federales anunciaron recientemente que no compartirán la información de los estudiantes en las solicitudes en línea con las universidades hasta marzo. Debido a los retrasos en el proceso de la FAFSA, las universidades tendrán menos tiempo para preparar los paquetes de ayuda financiera y los estudiantes tendrán menos tiempo para revisarlos y tomar decisiones. Si llenas un formulario en papel, es posible que la universidad no revise tu solicitud de ayuda financiera hasta abril.

El formulario en papel también deja más margen para cometer errores, ya que las instrucciones pueden ser más complicadas de seguir. Si estás pensando en llenar el formulario en papel, acude a un orientador universitario de tu escuela o a una organización de acceso a la universidad para que te ayuden, sobre todo si nunca has llenado una FAFSA.

“Se trata de todas esas familias que no tienen a nadie que les guíe y que podrían cometer errores en el formulario en papel, aunque haya páginas y páginas de instrucciones”, dijo Keller. “Hay mucha más orientación en el formulario en línea”.

Si lleno el formulario en papel, ¿puedo también llenar el formulario en línea?

Sí. Si envías una FAFSA impresa por correo y luego llenas la versión en línea, el gobierno federal se basará en la versión en línea y tratará la copia en papel como un envío duplicado.

Y si cometes un error en la FAFSA, no te preocupes: también hay un proceso para enviar correcciones.

“Sólo queremos animar a las familias a seguir adelante”, dijo Keller. “No renuncies a la idea de ir a la universidad solo porque el formulario está siendo una barrera ahora mismo”.

Traducido por Milly Suazo-Martinez

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación con sede en Chicago. Se habla español. Para comunicarte con ella, envíale un email a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Partial FAFSA fix lets students from immigrant families apply for financial aid

2024-02-21T01:24:04+00:00

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Students whose parents lack a Social Security number can finally fill out federal financial aid forms after the Biden administration announced a workaround Tuesday for one of the most glaring problems with what was supposed to be a simpler, easier form.

U.S. Department of Education officials say these students can leave their parent or spouse’s Social Security number blank for now, and manually enter the person’s income and tax information. The department provided details about the workaround to Chalkbeat, and plans to post them online Wednesday.

Chalkbeat first reported in January that the Social Security glitch was preventing potentially tens of thousands of eligible U.S. citizen students from applying for financial aid.

The workaround is meant to help students meet fast-approaching deadlines for certain state, college, or scholarship applications. The department promised a permanent fix is coming next month. It is also urging students who don’t have an urgent submission deadline to wait until then. Those who use the workaround will need to take additional steps in March to fully submit their application.

This puts significant pressure on school counselors and college access organizations to guide families through the process on a compressed timeline.

The Better FAFSA, as the new version of the Free Application for Federal Financial Aid is known, was supposed to make it easier for students to apply for aid for college. While more than 4 million students have completed the form successfully, the rollout has been plagued by glitches and delays. Far fewer students have completed the form than in previous years, and frustration and anxiety is mounting among parents, counselors, and college administrators.

Department officials said they intend to fully resolve FAFSA submission issues for parents without Social Security numbers “in the first half of March.” After that, students won’t need the workaround.

The education department is also working to fix a separate problem that’s made it difficult for parents without Social Security numbers to create a login for the FAFSA website. Officials said they will automate that process this month and add more Spanish-speaking staff to the call center that’s helping families navigate that issue.

Department officials estimate that 2% of federal financial aid applicants are experiencing issues due to the Social Security number glitch.

The announcement came the same day that over 90 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by U.S. Reps. Jesus “Chuy” García of Illinois, Colin Allred of Texas, and Jared Huffman and Nanette Barragán of California, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressing concerns about the “flawed rollout” of the FAFSA.

They urged the department to quickly resolve the technical issues preventing students whose parents don’t have Social Security numbers from submitting their applications.

“Students eligible for financial aid have the right to access that aid, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status,” García wrote in a press release. “But because of a technical error in the new FAFSA form, many of my constituents from immigrant and mixed-status families were left without answers and no path forward as college financial aid deadlines crept up.”

García added that he and other lawmakers “spent weeks” urging the department to fix the issue, and that while the temporary fix was a good first step, “The Department must continue to rectify these errors in rollout so no student is blocked from the aid they need.”

The letter notes that federal officials identified the issue affecting parents without Social Security numbers on Jan. 4. Tuesday marked the first update. On past calls with reporters, top education department officials said only that they were working to fix the problem.

A paper version of the FAFSA still exists, but officials have not widely publicized it and there are downsides to using it, such as greater chance of making mistakes.

The letter writers also call on the department “to conduct outreach to proactively inform students, counselors, and other stakeholders about when families with undocumented parents can expect a solution and how to submit their forms once it’s resolved.”

Department officials said Tuesday evening that they would set up a new email list to keep students and families who’ve been affected by this issue in the loop on updates.

Without a fix, American high school students whose parents are undocumented could end up at the back of the line for financial aid, especially in the states — including Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee — that distribute aid on a first-come, first-served basis, the lawmakers note.

Justin Draeger, who heads the nonprofit National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement that he worried the temporary solution would be “confusing and burdensome” to many students and families and that it was imperative that the department met its mid-March deadline for a permanent fix.

“Any further delays would be disastrous for both students and schools,” Draeger wrote.

The Better FAFSA’s brief, rocky history

The rollout of the new federal financial aid process has been troubled from the start.

The form didn’t become available to families until January, which cut months off the normal timeline for students to fill out the form. Students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care, and students whose parents are undocumented immigrants — all students for whom financial support is critical to their college decisions — have faced major problems even completing the form.

As of mid-February, just 22% of high school seniors had completed the FAFSA, according to an analysis of federal data by the National College Attainment Network, compared with 41% of the Class of 2023 by this same time last year. Completion rates are down more than 50% at high schools serving large numbers of low-income students and students of color.

Spurred by Republican lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office has opened two investigations into the FAFSA launch, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, the education department has said it won’t be able to share student information with colleges until mid-March, a delay that means colleges aren’t able to share financial aid packages with students until later in the spring. That’s left school staff and advocates worried that students will rush to make decisions before they have all the financial information they need.

Already, a slew of colleges have announced they’re pushing back their deadlines for students to commit, a delay that has implications for those institutions’ own planning for the next academic year.

Advocates for first-generation college students and those from low-income backgrounds fear that a lack of accurate information about financial aid will cause many students to put off higher education or opt for community college.

Recent data suggests fewer than half of students who transfer from a community college to a four-year program go on to complete their bachelor’s degree, and the rate is lower among students from vulnerable backgrounds.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Supreme Court will not hear case involving racial diversity at selective high school

2024-02-20T21:56:42+00:00

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The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of a highly selective Virginia high school’s admissions policy on the grounds that it discriminates against Asian American students.

The high court’s decision not to take the case means that last year’s ruling by an appeals court upholding the admissions policy will stand. The case, known as Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, looked at whether the school board was legally allowed to change the entrance criteria for a prestigious magnet high school in Alexandria, Virginia, with the intent of enrolling a more diverse class.

The Supreme Court has long held that school districts can consider race-neutral factors to create more diverse schools. But the plaintiffs in this case alleged the school board used certain criteria as “proxies” for race, with the intent of reducing the share of Asian American students who were admitted to the school.

The case was closely watched because many school districts use similar methods to create diverse student bodies. If the Supreme Court had taken the case, it could have had sweeping consequences for magnet schools and other selective K-12 programs, legal experts say.

Still, observers say it likely won’t be the end of legal challenges to selective K-12 admissions. The same law firm that brought this case, for example, has challenged similar admissions policies for selective schools in Boston, New York City, and New York state.

“I do think given the number of cases that are percolating through different districts and courts of appeals, that it’s probably true that there will be additional attempts to revisit this issue before the Supreme Court,” said Cara McClellan, a practice associate professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, who has written about legal challenges to race-conscious admissions. “It continues to be a hotly contested issue.”

In a Tuesday statement, the chair of the Fairfax County School Board said the decision put to rest a three-year legal battle over the fairness of the admissions policy change.

“We have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students,” Karl Frisch said. “It guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school.”

In a statement, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the libertarian law firm representing the plaintiffs, said by choosing not to hear the case, “the Supreme Court missed an important opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions.”

Admissions policy changed to include student ‘experience factors’

While the Supreme Court has shown a willingness to overturn years of legal precedent in other cases — notably by prohibiting colleges and universities from considering race as a factor in higher education admissions last year — it was apparently not willing to revisit its earlier decisions here. Notably, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that school districts can take certain steps to racially diversify their student bodies, so long as they do not explicitly consider the race of individual students.

In this case, the Coalition for TJ alleged that the Fairfax County School Board violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution in 2020 when it changed its policy to get into Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top high school that draws from five Virginia school districts.

Known as TJ, the high school offers advanced math and science classes that put its graduates on the path for elite colleges and careers. Historically, to get in, applicants needed to do well on a series of standardized tests and essays, and obtain high grades and teacher recommendations. Typically, students from just a few middle schools won most of the slots.

In 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd prompted a racial reckoning at many schools, school leaders sought to change the enrollment policy, pointing out that very few Black and Hispanic students gained entrance. During the 2019-20 school year, the school of around 1,800 students was 71% Asian American, 19% white, 5% multiracial, 3% Hispanic, and 2% Black, state data shows.

After months of debate, the Fairfax County School Board approved a new enrollment policy that set aside a certain share of seats at TJ from each middle school in the attendance area.

Students eligible for those seats were evaluated based on their grades, an essay, a description of their skills, and a set of “experience factors,” including whether they came from a low-income family, were an English learner, had a special education plan, or attended a middle school that had historically sent few students to TJ.

In 2021, the Coalition for TJ, which includes parents of students who had applied to TJ or planned to, sued the school board. The group argued that the middle school seat set-aside and experience factors were being used as “proxies” to “racially balance” the school, with the goal of reducing the share of Asian American students.

The appeals court disagreed, and said the school board had used enrollment methods permissible under prior Supreme Court rulings.

According to Fairfax County Public Schools, in the most recent freshman class, which started last fall, Asian American students received 62% of offers to attend TJ, while white students received 19%, Black students received 7% and Hispanic students received 6%. Students from low-income families made up 12% of the incoming class, up from 2% in recent years.

In a dissent issued Tuesday, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said that the Supreme Court should have heard the Coalition for TJ’s case. Letting the appeals court decision stand, he wrote, was akin to agreeing that “intentional racial discrimination is constitutional so long as it is not too severe.”

“This reasoning is indefensible, and it cries out for correction,” Alito wrote.

Figuring out ‘the goals of public education’

Colleges and universities are still trying to respond to last year’s Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action in higher education admissions. And K-12 schools are evaluating what they can and should do to address high levels of racial and socioeconomic segregation — on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board decision.

“K-12 and higher ed is trying to figure out what to do,” said Erica Frankenberg, a Penn State education professor who studies school segregation. “There’s all of these things for us to really think about: What are the goals of public education in our society, and what [do] we want to allow school districts to take into account?”

Several other school districts with selective schools have come under scrutiny for admitting few students from low-income families or few Black and Hispanic students in recent years. Some of them changed admissions policies — only to face pushback from some parents and others who say those changes are unfair.

Chicago, for example, considers the demographics of the area where a student lives as part of the city’s selective high school admissions process, and takes steps to ensure high-performing students from both affluent and low-income areas have access. The city has taken steps to revamp that process to make it more fair for low-income students — and has signaled a desire to move away from the current selective schools system.

Philadelphia, similarly, overhauled its selective high school process to provide greater access to the city’s most coveted magnet schools, and moved to a lottery system that boosted the share of Black and Latino students who gained admission.

New York City, meanwhile, has come under fire from integration advocates for its selective high school admissions, particularly for eight prestigious high schools where a test is the sole basis for admissions. Some advocates have long criticized the test as a barrier for Black and Latino students. But other families have fought to keep the status quo, and parents in areas that are more affluent and have higher numbers of Asian American students have mobilized around the issue.

The University of Pennsylvania’s McClellan said the Supreme Court’s decision should encourage school districts that use methods like Fairfax County’s to create diverse schools to stay the course, regardless of future court challenges.

“School districts that are committed to diversity and inclusion shouldn’t become overly cautious,” McClellan said, pointing to examples of how colleges have rolled back diversity efforts that go beyond the text of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. “Part of the effect of having ongoing challenges to existing precedent is that there feels like there is a lot of uncertainty — even when the law is clear.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Unaccompanied homeless youth are overlooked. A new book shows what it means to give them support.

2024-02-16T01:00:00+00:00

When Vicki Sokolik first started working with teens experiencing homelessness living on their own without a parent, she would host “lunch and learns” at local high schools.

Her goal was to explain to social workers, assistant principals, and other staff who qualified as an unaccompanied homeless youth, and how schools could refer those students to her nonprofit for housing and other services.

Sixteen years later, Sokolik says there is still a lack of awareness of these students and their particular social, emotional, and educational needs.

“People still — no matter if they’re in the schools, if they’re lawmakers, if they’re medical professionals — really do not understand what an unaccompanied homeless youth is, or even what to look for,” Sokolik said.

Her new book, “If You See Them: Young, Unhoused, and Alone in America,” details her experience working with these students in Florida’s Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

The latest federal data show that nearly 111,000 students were identified as unaccompanied homeless youth during the 2021-22 school year — a number many experts and advocates, including Sokolik, say is an under-count. Other estimates that include older teens and youth in their early 20s put the number much higher.

The needs these students have are often great. Many are survivors of rape or sexual assault. Many have experienced suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide. Some were kicked out of their homes because they identify as LGBTQ. Many have had contact with child protective services, but were not removed from their homes. Often they have a juvenile record, sometimes for stealing basic necessities.

Vicki Sokolik's book looks at the particular needs of unaccompanied homeless youth. Shaq, now 27, participated in a program run by Sokolik's nonprofit and shares his experience with students.

It’s also common for these students to be chronically absent from school, and to have undiagnosed learning disabilities. Sokolik recalls one student who entered her nonprofit’s program a few years ago as a 12th grader who could not read. He needed intensive help from a reading coach and a special education plan.

And these students are caught between being treated as children and adults by various legal systems. A student Sokolik worked with lobbied Florida lawmakers to make it easier for youth living on their own to obtain their birth certificate, for example.

Chalkbeat spoke with Sokolik about what she’s learned working with unaccompanied homeless youth through her nonprofit — Starting Right, Now — and what educators should keep in mind.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Why can it be hard for schools to identify students as unaccompanied homeless youth?

This is a very invisible population because the kids actually don’t want to be found. They are so afraid of what will happen if someone figures out that they’re not with their parent or guardian. Will they put them in foster care? What will happen to their siblings? Because of that, they tend to hide.

There’s a lot of shame associated with being a homeless unaccompanied youth. They carry this burden of: They did something wrong. Until they get to the point where they just don’t know what to do anymore, they don’t seek help.

Schools can refer students to Starting Right, Now. What are some of the gaps that your organization is able to fill in that schools can’t?

Unfortunately, schools can’t get to the root of the problem for an unaccompanied homeless youth. The first thing is, obviously, stable housing. So we provide stable housing, we provide food security. We provide academic support, social services support, life-skills training, and then we help the kids plan what their next goal is going to be.

One percent of our kids go to the military, about 9% go to vocational training and the rest go to higher education. And then we provide case management to those kids until they actually get into their career. In addition to that, every single student in our program is matched with their own mentor, so they have this incredibly reliable adult in their life.

You talk in the book about the link between being an unaccompanied homeless youth and chronic absenteeism. What are some of the barriers that prevent the students you work with from attending school regularly?

The kids do what we call couch-hopping, where they’re asking a friend every night: Can I sleep at your house? And a lot of times they’ll get farther and farther away from school. We had a student who was walking six miles each way to get to school. And if it was pouring down rain, she wasn’t going. Transportation becomes a major barrier.

A lot of times, the kids work. And because they have to survive, they end up going to work during school hours. Their employer should not even allow that, but they do. And then the other thing is they don’t have access to laundry facilities. They don’t want to go to school because their clothes are not clean.

The share of students you work with who’ve had a visit from child protective services at some point in their lives is incredibly high. And a lot of them do not have a positive experience with the state. How does that shape the services you provide?

Most of our kids are so afraid of authority, in general, because they’ve watched their parents being taken away. They’ve watched their siblings being taken away. They’ve been taken away.

It shapes everything that we do. When a student walks into our program, we know for sure that they’re not going to trust anything we say or do. And they’re going to probably try to get kicked out because they just know it isn’t going to work out — they already have that in their head.

We have to develop trust by having our actions align with our words, and making sure that when we say we’re going to do something, it’s unquestionably done at the time we say. It takes a long time to build that trust. You have to show up day after day.

We do a lot of activities that require not only them to be vulnerable, but our staff to be vulnerable. We open up with the “Snowballs” activity in the book [which asks staff and students to write down and anonymously share something they’re afraid of, something they’re ashamed of, and something they succeeded at]. When the veil is lifted, I just think that kids realize we’re people, too.

One student in your book writes about feeling like she’s disintegrated, and she’s having these intense feelings of loneliness. How do mental health struggles complicate the lives of the students you’re working with and their education opportunities?

Trauma just creeps into everything. Because [our kids] have been so busy, just trying to survive day to day, their trauma gets a little bit pushed back. But the minute they get stably housed, after about 30 days of being in the house, [they] start having these horrible flashbacks of all different things that have happened to them.

Among the students featured in Vicki Sokolik's book is Taylor, who experienced homelessness as a youth and now works as a school social worker.

It can impact eating, it can impact sleeping — they just want to lay in bed all day. It can impact going to school, even being able to listen to their teacher. That’s usually the moment that we kick in the mental health specialists.

The other thing we see all the time is, because our kids are so angry — and rightfully so, people that should have protected them have let them down — they end up saying things to a teacher that they obviously shouldn’t say. And so they end up getting a [discipline] referral at school, and a lot of times end up being released for the day, when, really, they need help.

It’s so hard to point your finger at the schools and say: “You should be doing this or that,” because they’re doing the best they can with the resources that they have. I think they need more resources.

You try to strike the right balance between providing meaningful guidance and support, and also letting young people advocate for themselves and make their own choices. You write that a lot of times, unaccompanied homeless youth have learned to be incredibly resourceful and resilient, but they also lack basic skills, like cooking for themselves.

It’s hard. The way that I approach everything now — which is not how I did it previously — is that [I say]: I’m trying to look ahead for your future. [For example], every year we do an etiquette class. The majority of our kids have never been to a restaurant, they’ve never ordered off a menu. And we talk about: This isn’t about today. We’re not judging you. We don’t care that you don’t know. However, when you have your first interview over a meal, you’re going to be expected to know this.

It also comes down to: Is my help going to matter in that moment? Or should I back off, because it’s not dire right this second. I find that when I give the kids space, they’re more willing to listen. I let both of us just calm down, and then come back to it, and come up with a strategy that works.

In the book, some students say: There’s this white woman in front of me asking me personal questions, I don’t know if I trust her, I don’t want to be seen as a charity case. How have you learned to navigate some of the racial and socioeconomic divides between yourself and the kids?

I am who I am. I don’t think I try to change that divide.

There was a student in our program who said to me: “You’ll never understand me.” They’re in our program right now. And I said: “Well, try me, is there something going on?” [The student said]: “I can’t tell you, and you’ll never understand me.”

[Then one Saturday, the student called me] and she’s hysterically crying. And I find out that she’s so upset because her mother was investigated again by [Florida’s Department of Children and Families]. We probably were on the phone for an hour, just talking. By the time she hung up, she said to me: “Thank you for answering your phone.” And I said: “I’ll always answer my phone, that isn’t even a question. I’m here for you.”

And that changed everything. I do understand her now, in her eyes.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Frustrated with FAFSA? There is a paper form, but it might not be the best option.

2024-02-13T19:37:25+00:00

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As many students continue to experience technical glitches preventing them from submitting their application for federal financial aid online, there is one potential workaround: an old-fashioned paper form.

But college access organizations and financial aid experts caution that for many students, this may not be the best route.

Here’s what you should know before you fill out the paper version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA:

What is the paper FAFSA form? Where can I find it?

Federal officials have long released a paper version of the FAFSA, though only a small share of students submitted a hard copy in recent years, which is why you may not have heard about it before now.

You can find a paper copy of the FAFSA in English here, and in Spanish here.

Why might I consider filling out a paper FAFSA form?

Right now, parents who don’t have a Social Security number cannot add their information to their child’s online application for college financial aid, and in some cases may not be able to obtain login credentials to access the online system.

That’s because of a technical glitch federal officials say they are working to fix. A senior official for the U.S. Department of Education told reporters on Monday that officials are meeting daily to try to resolve the issue, but right now there is no timeline. This problem has prevented thousands of students whose parents are immigrants from completing the FAFSA.

The paper form allows parents and spouses without Social Security numbers to write in all zeroes, as they could in past years online, and to provide an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, if they have one. Parents can fill out the paper form without going through the identity-verification process blocking some from obtaining login credentials online.

If your college, state, or scholarship organization has a hard deadline to submit the FAFSA, and that’s coming up, you may want to consider filling out the paper form as a way to meet that deadline. Once you mail in the paper form, the day the application is received in the mail will be marked as your submission date.

Should I wait for the online form to be fixed instead of filling out the paper form?

If you don’t have a pressing FAFSA submission deadline, it may be a better option to wait for the online form to be fixed, said MorraLee Keller, a senior director at the nonprofit National College Attainment Network.

That’s because paper forms will be processed after online applications, so you risk putting yourself farther back in the processing line if you go the paper route. That matters because some colleges award aid on a first-come, first-served basis.

Federal officials recently announced that they won’t be sharing students’ information from online applications with colleges until March. Already, because of delays in the FAFSA process, colleges have less time to put together financial aid packages and students will have less time to review them and make decisions. If you fill out a paper form, a college may not review your financial aid application until April.

The paper form also leaves more room for mistakes, as the instructions can be more complicated to follow. If you’re considering filling out the paper form, reach out to a college counselor at your school or a college access organization for help, especially if you’ve never filled out a FAFSA before.

“It’s all those families out there who don’t have someone guiding them that there would be potential that they could make mistakes on the paper form, even though there’s pages and pages of instructions,” Keller said. “There’s a lot more guidance in the online form.”

If I fill out the paper form, can I still fill out the online form?

Yes. If you mail in a paper FAFSA and then fill out the online version, the federal government will rely on the online version and treat the paper copy like a duplicate submission.

And if you make a mistake on your FAFSA, don’t worry: There is a process to submit corrections, too.

“We just want to encourage families to stay the course,” Keller said. “Don’t give up on the idea of higher education or going to college because the form is a stumbling block right now.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Can you take algebra in eighth grade? In many cases, the answer is no, national survey finds

2024-02-07T19:00:00+00:00

If you’re an eighth grader who wants to take algebra, can you even take the class?

The answer to that question, it turns out, depends a lot on two things: how your school identifies students for advanced math, and where you live.

According to a new nationally representative survey released Tuesday, 65% of U.S. principals said their elementary or middle school offered algebra in eighth grade, but only to certain students. Meanwhile, just 20% of principals said their school offered the class in eighth grade and that any student could take it.

But that picture differed by state. In California, nearly half of principals said their school offered algebra only to certain eighth graders. But in Florida, more than 80% of principals said the class was restricted. In both states, 18% of principals said any eighth grader could take the class, similar to the national rate.

The findings, based on surveys conducted last spring by the RAND Corporation, shed light on the uneven access students have to advanced math classes in middle school, which can have lasting effects on their higher education and job prospects.

Algebra is often considered a gateway class. Eighth graders who take the course can more easily reach calculus by 12th grade — which can set students up for challenging math classes in college and career paths in science and engineering fields.

“The kids that aren’t in algebra by eighth grade, they can do that still,” said Julia Kaufman, a senior policy researcher at RAND, and the lead author of the report, “but they would have to do something special to get there,” such as doubling up on math or taking a summer class.

The report also details the extent to which students are separated based on their perceived math abilities, starting as young as elementary school.

More than 40% of elementary school principals told RAND researchers that their school grouped kids based on their math levels, mostly within the classroom. But by middle school, nearly 70% of principals said they grouped students in math. Most commonly, students were put into separate math classes on honors or career prep tracks, the report found.

“The amount of achievement-level grouping — that it does start within classrooms in K-5 schools and that by middle school, students are typically grouped by achievement level more often than they’re not in their math classes — that’s something new,” Kaufman said.

The findings come as parents and school leaders across the country engage in fierce debates over whether students should be able to take algebra before high school, and if so, what support students need to do well in the class.

Notably, San Francisco Unified schools, which attracted national attention for a policy that prevented students from taking algebra until ninth grade, are poised to bring algebra back to middle schools following parent pushback. School officials there put the policy in place 10 years ago to help prepare more Black and Latino students and students from low-income families to pass algebra and access higher-level math classes — a goal that hasn’t panned out.

The new survey data doesn’t look at whether tracking helps or hurts students’ math outcomes.

And there are other factors that could affect whether students can access higher-level math classes, the report notes, such as differing teacher certification rules, school funding levels, and state policies. California’s state math guidelines encourage students to take algebra in ninth grade, for example, while New York schools are supposed to offer high school math to eighth graders who want to take it.

But Kaufman says the report does suggest that schools should be looking at the criteria they use to group students in math, and whether it could be fueling racial or socioeconomic disparities.

“We’re not giving a recommendation that nobody should be tracked,” Kaufman said. “But if you are grouping students, I think this report calls for you to consider whether the way students are grouped, and how, is biased. Are a lot of students of color, for example, in the lower track? What’s happening there?”

Schools try various methods to expand algebra access

Nationally, white and Asian American students are more likely than their Black and Hispanic classmates to enroll in and pass algebra in eighth grade, the latest federal data shows. Historically, students from low-income families have had less access to algebra in eighth grade, too.

In Philadelphia, many students are blocked from the city’s most selective high school because their middle schools don’t offer algebra. Making algebra more accessible is part of the superintendent’s curriculum overhaul.

School districts like Chicago have taken steps to expand access to algebra in eighth grade, such as offering the class online and covering costs for educators to get algebra teaching credentials. Historically, fewer students in the city’s predominantly Black and low-income neighborhoods have been able to take the class before high school.

The RAND survey found that principals of more-affluent schools were much more likely than leaders of higher-poverty schools to say they considered parent or guardian requests to place students into advanced math classes. That could shortchange kids who don’t have a parent who can step in and do that kind of advocacy, Kaufman noted.

The report urges schools to look at multiple data points to place students into higher-level math classes, and to consider experimenting with the cutoff scores used to identify which students can handle the harder math coursework.

In Oklahoma, Union Public Schools is trying that, The Hechinger Report recently reported. The district, which serves parts of Tulsa and the city’s southeast suburbs, used to offer a pre-algebra placement test in fifth grade, just one time.

But after school officials realized that was mostly funneling kids from elementary schools in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods into the advanced middle and high school math classes, they made changes. The district now allows students to take the fifth-grade placement test multiple times, and teachers can recommend promising students regardless of their score. That’s helped diversify advanced math classes, particularly for Hispanic students.

Union Public Schools also added math tutoring starting in third grade — the kind of support that the RAND report says can be crucial for student success, but that many struggling students aren’t getting.

More than three-quarters of middle school principals told the RAND researchers that less than half of their struggling students participated in math support options offered by their school, such as tutoring, double-dose math classes, or a summer math program for rising middle schoolers.

That could point to the need for schools to universally screen kids for extra math help, or do more to make sure students and parents know about what help is offered. Schools may also need to change how the help is offered, such as moving after-school tutoring to during the school day or providing transportation so more kids can attend.

Those are crucial steps, Kaufman said, at a time when many kids are struggling to close math gaps that cropped up when school was remote or disrupted in other ways by the pandemic.

“I know tutoring is happening in a lot of places, it’s one of the priorities of the White House right now,” she said. But if tutoring is mostly offered to kids and parents who volunteer, “then the tutoring is not going to reach the kids who need it the most.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Many schools want to keep tutoring going when COVID money is gone. How will they pay for it?

2024-02-01T19:21:58+00:00

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As Kelli Bottger works on tutoring programs across Louisiana, she’s been taking state lawmakers on tours, hoping they’ll see what she sees: Tutoring works.

On a visit to an elementary school in East Baton Rouge Parish this past fall, lawmakers took note of how close students had gotten to their tutors. Those relationships had even motivated kids who’d missed a lot of school to attend more regularly.

“It’s one thing for us to explain tutoring, it’s another thing to see it in practice,” said Bottger, who directs the Louisiana Kids Matter Campaign. The organization is piloting reading and math tutoring as part of a $2 million initiative funded by the state and the national nonprofit Accelerate. “They liked the one-on-one attention they were getting with their tutor. They liked being heard and listened to.”

Federal pandemic aid paid for a major expansion of tutoring across the U.S. As the money runs out, education officials and advocates are pushing for state legislators and schools to find a way to keep these programs going. There’s widespread agreement that lots of kids still need academic help, and schools need to provide it.

But the big question is: Where will the money come from?

State lawmakers have lots of funding requests on their plates right now, and not just from schools. Even if some states do come through with extra funds, it will likely be less than what schools had to work with before. That’s left school leaders scrambling to find alternative funding sources and poring over their budgets to figure out what can go so tutoring can stay.

“There is a lot of conversation about what strategic investments districts need to be making, and what should be prioritized,” said Nakia Towns, the chief operating officer for Accelerate, which funds and researches tutoring efforts. “High-dosage tutoring has such an incredible payoff for kids,” she said, that it should be “right at the top of that list.”

Why some states may keep spending on tutoring

Forty states have spent money on tutoring since the pandemic began, according to a recent review conducted by the National Student Support Accelerator, a Stanford University program that researches tutoring.

That’s added up to a huge investment. Last year, the nonprofit Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents state education department heads, estimated that states would spend $700 million of their federal COVID relief dollars to expand tutoring efforts. And local school districts are expected to spend more than $3 billion of their own COVID aid on tutoring, according to an estimate from the Georgetown University think tank FutureEd, based on data compiled by the company Burbio.

Many states also worked to ensure the quality of those tutoring programs. The Stanford review found that 26 states set ground rules so that schools would follow tutoring best practices, such as keeping groups small and holding sessions several times per week. Some say after states did all that legwork, it makes sense not to walk away now.

Already, some states have pledged continued funding — and federal officials have indicated they’d look favorably on state requests for more time to spend pandemic aid if it’s going toward tutoring.

Virginia put an extra $418 million in its state budget for academic recovery this past fall, and plans to spend 70% of that on high-dosage tutoring for students who failed or received low marks on state tests. Michigan set aside $150 million in state funds last year for intensive tutoring under the state’s MI Kids Back on Track program.

Others are working on it. Some Texas districts have asked the state to continue funding tutoring.

In Louisiana, Bottger and State Superintendent Cade Brumley are hopeful the legislature will sign off on putting money for in-school tutoring into the state’s main funding stream for schools. How much money that could be is still under discussion. But it would be in addition to the $5 million request the education department made to add math to the state’s $40 million literacy tutoring voucher program.

As Brumley meets with state officials to talk about more money for tutoring, his message has been: “Please give it serious consideration.”

“Students need to be able to read and do math by the time they exit our elementary schools,” he said.

In New Jersey, Paula White, the executive director of the advocacy group JerseyCAN, is asking the state to keep paying for tutoring, too.

As White tries to win lawmakers’ continued support, her plan is to emphasize the positive results that tutoring has produced and the state’s stagnant test scores — “Are we over the hump? Is the problem solved? And we know the answer to that is ‘no,’” she said.

It helps, she said, that state leaders have already talked publicly about the importance of tutoring, as New Jersey is running a $52 million high-impact tutoring grant program with federal funds. Still, she knows it will be an “uphill battle” with other federal aid drying up, and the state taking in less revenue.

“We just have to be vigilant about making sure that it gets the budgetary attention that it deserves,” White said.

How school districts are trying to fund tutoring themselves

Absent new state funds, many districts will likely be looking for programs to trim or eliminate so they can keep tutoring. That’s what Superintendent Scott Muri and his team are doing now in Ector County, Texas.

During the pandemic, the district launched a virtual tutoring program that’s become a must-keep. Ector County schools budgeted around $5 million a year in COVID funds for the program, which amounts to 1% of the district’s discretionary spending. Now staff are hoping to make up part of the difference by cutting math and reading apps that aren’t working well, or aren’t used much. In the past, teachers or schools could pick their preferred programs, but that resulted in a lot of duplication.

“Choice and options are still important, but we want the most effective options,” Muri said. “Let’s get rid of the good and only keep the great.”

Districts also will be looking for ways they could spend existing federal or state funding meant to help students from low-income families, students with disabilities, or English learners on tutoring programs. States could help by providing school districts with more guidance on how they can combine those pots of money, said Allison Socol, a vice president at The Education Trust, which recently published a guide for making equitable budget decisions as COVID aid runs out.

“One of the things we’ve heard directly from district leaders and school leaders is struggles with rethinking how those dollars are spent,” Socol said. “Status quo is hard to change.”

Some may consider shrinking the size of their tutoring program to focus on kids who most need help, or cutting an after-school tutoring program to focus on tutoring during the school day. That’s considered a better way to reach students, as many kids don’t have transportation or can’t stay after school.

However, tutoring experts are cautioning against making group sizes larger or reducing how often tutoring happens as a way to cut costs.

“Once a week in a small group of 10″ isn’t likely to produce “the outsized positive effects that we expect from high-impact tutoring,” said Nancy Waymack, who directs research partnerships and policy for the National Student Support Accelerator. “We really want to make sure that those groups are kept to a small number, so that students can get individual attention.”

There could be other avenues, too. Some school districts and tutoring programs have used federal work study grants to pay college students to tutor, according to a January report from FutureEd. Federal officials are urging schools to tap that funding source, though it can be a little complicated.

Amy Cohen, an assistant vice provost at the George Washington University, helps recruit and train college students to tutor middle schoolers in DC Public Schools. They’re paid using federal work-study funds through a program called Math Matters.

The college students take a one-credit course to learn about the curriculum they’ll use and how to work with kids, and then Math Matters matches them with schools that want tutors. So far, it’s been a popular work-study job, and the program has placed 84 tutors in schools.

With 30 years of experience working on work-study programs, Cohen says there are a few things to keep in mind.

It’s relatively easy for a college to launch a new work-study job like this, but it can be harder for a school district to know where to start. A staff person who can handle recruitment and oversight is key, Cohen said — but that’s an added cost.

And tutoring sessions backed by work-study dollars have to be planned carefully so college students don’t hit their earning limit too quickly, which would create inconsistency for kids.

“Federal work study is a hugely important and sometimes overlooked asset,” Cohen said. “I really hope that more investment is made in both thinking about how to do it well and in offering supports.”

Parents see benefit of funding tutoring long term

In the meantime, parents like Kezne’ Cook and D’Mekeus Cook of Lafayette, Louisiana would like to see states continue to fund tutoring programs like the one that’s helped their fourth grader over the last two years.

The Cook family got regular updates about their son's progress in reading from the tutoring center he attended after school with the help of a $40 million Louisiana tutoring program.

Their son, who’s also named D’Mekeus, spent part of kindergarten and all of first grade learning remotely during the pandemic. When he entered second grade, his mom could tell he was struggling to understand what they were reading in class, and he no longer wanted to read aloud at school.

The family took D’Mekeus to a tutoring center after school to get extra help, but that started to get pricey. So they were relieved when they found out about the state’s tutoring voucher program, which provides families with $1,000 per eligible child to pay for private tutoring.

As D’Mekeus got more one-on-one help, his dad noticed his son’s confidence returned, and he started doing better in other subjects at school, too. It’s important for programs like this to stick around, the Cooks said, because it takes time for kids to make progress.

“It’s not something that just occurs overnight,” said Kezne’ Cook. “I see the steps it takes to get to where he’s at now.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Familias inmigrantes tienen problemas para completar la FAFSA. Aquí te informamos.

2024-01-31T00:01:48+00:00

Read in English.

Actualizado: Problema corregido en la FAFSA abre el formulario para muchas familias inmigrantes

Como muchos estudiantes en su último año de high school, Jocelyn, de 18 años, está tratando de completar su lista de pendientes para aplicar a la universidad.

Hasta ahora, ya envió aplicaciones a 10 universidades. Northeastern University en Chicago y la Universidad de Illinois en Chicago son sus preferidas. Le gustaría estudiar medicina veterinaria y trabajar con animales como sus dos gatos, Strawberry y Copito.

Con la ayuda de su hermano, Jocelyn completó su parte de la solicitud federal para ayuda financiera en alrededor de una hora. Pero ahora no puede hacer más porque su mamá, quien no tiene un número de Seguro Social, no ha podido agregar su información financiera.

El nuevo formulario de la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FAFSA, por sus siglas en inglés) que se lanzó el mes pasado supuestamente iba a facilitar que los estudiantes y sus familias lo completaran. Y de muchas maneras así es: es más corto y saca la información de impuestos directamente del IRS en lugar de pedirles a las familias que la ingresen ellas mismas. El objetivo es que más estudiantes soliciten ayuda y asistan a la universidad.

Pero el formulario se lanzó varios meses después de lo normal, lo cual dejó a muchos estudiantes con menos tiempo para completarlo y a escuelas con dificultades para ayudar a los estudiantes. Además de eso, muchas familias han enfrentado obstáculos. Uno de los mayores problemas ha sido que los padres sin un número de Seguro Social no pueden ingresar su información en este momento, y las soluciones alternativas ofrecidas en años anteriores ya no están disponibles. Es posible que decenas de miles de estudiantes con ciudadanía estadounidense—quienes cumplen requisitos para solicitar ayuda financiera federal sin importar el estatus migratorio de sus padres—se vean afectados.

Representantes federales dicen que el problema está por solucionarse, pero no saben cuándo exactamente. Los defensores de la educación dicen que se necesita actuar con urgencia para resolver el problema ya que algunas universidades distribuyen ayuda financiera por orden de llegada de las aplicaciones.

Jocelyn, de 18 años de edad, muestra el video de Instagram que vio para asegurarse de completar correctamente su parte del formulario de FAFSA.

“Necesitamos estar trabajando día y noche”, dijo Amalia Chamorro, quien dirige el proyecto de políticas educativas para UnidosUS, un grupo de derechos civiles que aboga a favor de mejores oportunidades educativas para los estudiantes latinos. “Nos preocupa que esto sea un obstáculo más, otra barrera, otra manera de que están recibiendo un mensaje de que no importan, de que no se merecen cursar estudios postsecundarios. Ese no es el mensaje que queremos que reciban”. Jocelyn, cuyo apellido Chalkbeat no está compartiendo para no poner en peligro el estatus migratorio de su mamá, se siente estresada. Pero está tratando de mantener el optimismo de que pronto podrá completar este paso en su lista de pendientes.

“No quería enviar el formulario de FAFSA tarde, y ahora voy a tener que esperar”, dijo. “Sé que mis otros amigos ya lo enviaron, y siento que estoy un poco retrasada”.

Por qué algunos estudiantes están trabados con el nuevo formulario de FAFSA

Jocelyn no es la única de sus compañeros de clase con problemas.

Durante una visita a mediados de enero a Kelvyn Park High School en Chicago, solo dos de los 15 estudiantes en su clase que los ayuda prepararse para y aplicar a la universidad habían logrado completar la FAFSA. La escuela atiende mayormente a estudiantes latinos de familias con bajos ingresos, y muchos de ellos serán los primeros en su familia en asistir a la universidad.

Algunos estudiantes tuvieron dificultades cuando intentaron agregar a sus padres como “contribuidores” en la FAFSA, un nuevo paso que requiere que los padres creen una cuenta y verifiquen su identidad. En el pasado, los estudiantes podían completar más fácilmente la sección de sus padres.

Esto ha creado desafíos especialmente para familias que no conocen el proceso para solicitar ayuda financiera, que enfrentan obstáculos con el idioma, o a quienes les preocupa compartir información personal con el gobierno federal.

Cuando los estudiantes son los primeros en su familia en asistir a la universidad, o hay preocupaciones migratorias, “vas a encontrar mucha paranoia, vas a tener muchas ansiedades relacionadas”, dijo Josh Kumm, quien enseña la clase de Jocelyn en colaboración con OneGoal, una organización sin fines de lucro enfocada en el acceso universitario y que trabaja en más de 30 high schools en Chicago.

Breann Sanford, de 18 años, fue una de los afortunados que lograron enviar su solicitud.

Ayudó que su mamá conocía la FAFSA—completó el formulario cuando estudió un par de clases universitarias—y el asesor universitario y profesional de Sanford supo exactamente qué hacer cuando Sanford ingresó por error su dirección electrónica en lugar de la de su mamá una vez.

“Fue una gran ayuda”, Sanford dijo. “Sabía que tenía muchas opciones de apoyo a las que podía acudir si necesitaba ayuda”.

Lee más: La universidad es cara. Llenar la FAFSA te puede ayudar con los gastos.

Breann Sanford, de 18 años, no pudo enviar su formulario de FAFSA a mediados de enero. En su clase de Kelvyn Park High School en Chicago que ayuda a los estudiantes para que apliquen a la universidad, solo unos pocos completaron el formulario sin dificultades.

Otros estudiantes tienen dificultades por diferentes razones. Durante la reciente visita a Kelvyn Park High School, Ángel Serrano, de 18 años, dijo que todavía estaba tratando de decirle a su mamá que está aplicando a la universidad y necesita su ayuda con el formulario de asistencia financiera. El momento más adecuado para hacer eso son los miércoles—el único día en que su mamá no está agotada ni trabajando, Serrano dijo.

Otro estudiante en la clase necesita la información financiera de su mamá, pero ya no viven juntos ni están en comunicación.

“Tienes todas estas cosas que te pasan”, Kumm dijo. “No es solo lo socioeconómico, también son las partes socioemocionales de la dinámica familiar … Eso es complicado”.

La ayuda individual es clave, pero algunos problemas de la FAFSA necesitan una solución federal

El apoyo individual ha sido clave para que los estudiantes puedan guiarse por los obstáculos de la FAFSA, aunque los asesores escolares y universitarios han recibido numerosos pedidos de ayuda. A veces la solución es quedarse esperando horas en el teléfono con el Departamento de Educación de EE. UU.—un paso que es imposible para muchos padres que trabajan.

Elve Mitchell, director principal de operaciones programáticas para College Possible en Chicago, una organización enfocada en el acceso universitario que trabaja con media docena de high schools en la ciudad, dijo que una de las cosas principales en la que los asesores de la organización están trabajando es asegurar que los estudiantes y sus padres sepan qué preguntas deben hacer cuando finalmente se conectan por teléfono con una persona del departamento de educación.

Otra manera como el personal y los asesores escolares están tratando de ayudar es al encontrar formas de que los estudiantes trabajen en sus solicitudes, como perfeccionar un ensayo personal o usar una calculadora de ayuda federal para hacer comparaciones aproximadas de los costos universitarios.

Pero para los estudiantes cuyos padres no tienen un número de Seguro Social, no hay mucho que los consejeros escolares puedan hacer en este momento.

Cuando Jocelyn se reunió con el asesor escolar de su escuela esta semana, el consejo fue que siguiera esperando, que siguiera consultando el sitio web del gobierno federal y esperando por “la luz verde para ver qué hacer”.

En el pasado, los padres sin un número de Seguro Social podían ingresar solo ceros y firmar un formulario impreso.

Las escuelas como Kelvyn Park High School en Chicago han estado ayudando a estudiantes que enfrentan dificultades para completar el nuevo formulario de FAFSA.

El departamento de educación estableció un nuevo proceso para que estos padres verificaran su identidad a través de una agencia de crédito, pero educadores dicen que no está funcionando sistemáticamente. Algunos padres han tenido que llamar a la línea telefónica de ayuda federal, abrir un caso, y luego compartir documentos que comprueben su identidad.

“Para alguien que es indocumentado, da mucho miedo darle al gobierno federal cualquier documentación”, dijo Tony Petraitis, un especialista en planes de estudios universitarios en las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago que ha estado creando guías útiles con imágenes para apoyar a los consejeros escolares. “Para uno de nuestros [grupos demográficos] más vulnerables, es un problema mayor”.

Aunque la agencia de crédito produzca una identificación correcta, estos padres no pueden compartir información adicional en el formulario de FAFSA hasta que el gobierno federal solucione el problema.

Chamorro, de UnidosUS, espera que los retrasos y las frustraciones adicionales no resulten en que los estudiantes decidan no aplicar a la universidad.

“No queremos que se den por vencidos”, dijo.

Kalyn Belsha es una reportera principal enfocada en la educación a nivel nacional que trabaja desde Chicago. Comunícate con ella por mensaje electrónico a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

A glitch blocks thousands of immigrant families from a new, simpler FAFSA. The fix is TBD.

2024-01-25T22:20:06+00:00

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Update as of Feb. 21: There are now two workarounds for the Social Security number problem, one a paper form and the other online. Federal officials promise a permanent fix is coming in March.

Like many high school seniors, 18-year-old Jocelyn is trying to get through her college application to-do list.

She’s applied to 10 colleges so far. Northeastern University in Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are her top picks. She’d like to study veterinary medicine and work with animals like her two cats, Strawberry and Copito.

With the help of her sibling, Jocelyn completed her portion of the federal application for financial aid in around an hour. But now she’s stuck. That’s because her mom doesn’t have a Social Security number, so she hasn’t been able to add her financial information.

The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid that debuted last month was supposed to be easier for students and families to complete. And in many ways it is: It’s shorter, and it pulls tax information directly from the IRS instead of asking families to enter it themselves. The goal is to get more students to apply for aid and attend college.

But the form was released months later than usual, leaving students much less time to complete it and schools scrambling to offer help. On top of that, many families have experienced glitches. One of the biggest issues is that parents who don’t have a Social Security number can’t enter their information right now, and workarounds from prior years are gone. Potentially tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others with legal status — who are eligible for federal financial aid regardless of their parents’ immigration status — could be affected.

Federal officials say a fix is on the way, but can’t say when. Education advocates say there needs to be a stronger sense of urgency to resolve the issue, as some colleges award aid on a first-come, first-served basis.

Eighteen-year-old Jocelyn shows the Instagram video she watched to make sure she filled out her portion of the FAFSA correctly.

“We need to be working around the clock,” said Amalia Chamorro, who directs the education policy project for UnidosUS, a civil rights group that advocates to improve educational opportunities for Latino students. “We do worry that this is just another hurdle, another barrier, another way that they’re getting the message that they don’t matter, that they’re not as deserving of pursuing post-secondary education. That’s not the message that we want them to get.”

Jocelyn, whose last name Chalkbeat is withholding so as not to jeopardize her mother’s immigration status, is feeling stressed. But she’s trying to stay optimistic that she’ll be able to check this off her list soon, too.

“I didn’t want to turn in the FAFSA form late, and now I’m going to have to wait,” she said. “I know that my other friends have turned it in already, and I feel like I’m a little behind.”

Why some students are getting stuck on new FAFSA

Jocelyn isn’t the only one of her classmates having trouble.

On a visit in mid-January to Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago, just two of the 15 students in her class that helps students prepare for and apply to college had managed to complete the FAFSA. The high school serves predominantly Latino students from low-income families, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college.

Some students got tripped up trying to add their parents as “contributors” to the FAFSA, a new step that requires them to sign up for an account and verify their identity. In the past, students could more easily fill out their parent’s portion for them.

That has presented challenges especially for families who are unfamiliar with the financial aid process, who have language barriers, or who worry about sharing personal information with the federal government.

When students are the first in their family to attend college, or there are immigration concerns, “You’re going to have a lot of paranoia, you’re going to have a lot of anxieties around it,” said Josh Kumm, who teaches Jocelyn’s class in partnership with OneGoal, a nonprofit college access organization that works in over 30 high schools in Chicago.

Eighteen-year-old Breann Sanford was one of the lucky ones who got through.

It helped that her mom was familiar with the FAFSA — she filled one out when she took a few college classes — and Sanford’s college and career coach knew just what to do when Sanford accidentally entered her email instead of her mom’s in one instance.

“It was a big help,” she said. “I knew I had a lot of different support options that I could go to if I needed help.”

Breann Sanford, 18, was able to submit her FAFSA successfully by mid-January. In her class at Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago that helps students apply to college, only a few completed the form without challenges.

Others are struggling for other reasons. During the recent visit, 18-year-old Ángel Serrano said he was still trying to tell his mom that he’s applying to college and needs her help with the financial aid form. His window to do that is on Wednesdays — the only day she’s not exhausted or working, Serrano said.

Another student in the class needs financial information from his mom, but they’re no longer living together or on speaking terms.

“You’ve got all these other things going on,” Kumm said. “It’s not just socioeconomic, it’s also the social-emotional parts of the family dynamics … That’s complicated.”

One-on-one help is key, but some FAFSA issues need federal fix

One-on-one support has been crucial for students to navigate FAFSA hiccups, though school counselors and college coaches have been swamped with requests for help. Sometimes the fix is to sit on hold with the U.S. Department of Education for hours — a step that’s impossible for many working parents.

Elve Mitchell, the senior director of program operations for College Possible in Chicago, a college access organization that works with a half-dozen high schools in the city, said one big thing his organization’s coaches are working on is making sure students and parents know the right questions to ask when they finally do get through to a live person on the department’s helpline.

Another way school staff and coaches are trying to help is by finding other ways students can work on their applications, such as fine-tuning a personal essay or using a federal student aid estimator to do some rough comparisons of college costs.

But for students whose parents do not have Social Security numbers, there isn’t much a school counselor can do right now.

When Jocelyn met with her school’s college and career coach this week, the advice was to sit tight, keep checking the federal government’s website, and wait for “the green light on what to do.”

Schools like Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago have been stepping in to offer students help when they've struggled to complete the new FAFSA form.

In the past, parents without a Social Security number could enter all zeros and sign a paper form.

The education department set up a new process for these parents to verify their identity through a credit agency, but educators say it’s not working consistently. Parents have had to call the federal helpline, open a case, and then share documents that prove their identity.

“For someone who’s undocumented, it’s very scary to give the federal government any documentation,” said Tony Petraitis, a college and career curriculum specialist for Chicago Public Schools, who’s been assembling how-to guides with screenshots to support school counselors. “For one of our most vulnerable populations, it’s a pretty big deal.”

Even if the credit agency produces a correct match, these parents still can’t share additional information on the FAFSA until the federal government comes up with a fix.

Chamorro, of UnidosUS, hopes the added delays and frustrations don’t deter students from applying to college.

“We don’t want them to give up,” she said.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

White House calls for focus on tutoring, summer school, absenteeism as pandemic aid winds down

2024-01-18T00:26:36+00:00

Top White House officials are urging schools to double down on tutoring, extra learning time, and efforts to boost attendance as the spending deadline for pandemic aid nears.

To help, federal officials say states can now seek permission for schools to spend the last and largest pot of COVID relief money on these kinds of efforts over the next two school years. Previously, schools had to spend down their money by January 2025.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced what the Biden administration is calling its Improving Student Achievement Agenda at a White House event Wednesday with governors and state education commissioners. The new push comes at a time when many states have yet to see math and reading scores rebound to pre-pandemic levels and many students are struggling to fill in gaps in their learning.

Federal officials said they had chosen to focus on these strategies because they are proven ways to raise student achievement.

“These three strategies have one central goal: Giving students more time and more support to succeed,” Cardona said. “We must get back to pre-pandemic levels quickly. But also let’s be clear: The bare minimum that we aspire to is to get back to what it was in 2019. 2019 data wasn’t anything to write home about.”

Though the federal government doesn’t have many tools at its disposal to encourage schools to adopt certain attendance or academic strategies, Cardona said the education department would do what it could.

That includes monitoring states to make sure they are spending federal money on evidence-based approaches to improve school performance, a job they have under federal education law. For example, federal officials could look at how states are running their tutoring programs and step in to provide guidance if the model they’re using isn’t as effective as others.

Education officials also plan to prioritize these strategies for competitive grant funding.

Why the White House wants schools to focus on tutoring and chronic absenteeism

As they did throughout the pandemic, federal officials pointed to high-dosage tutoring as a worthy investment for schools. To do that, programs should tutor students one-on-one or in groups of no more than four, for 30 minutes at least three times a week. Sessions should be scheduled during the school day and take place with a trained tutor, White House officials wrote.

Last year, some states and school districts said they had abandoned efforts to tutor kids after school, finding students often missed sessions because they lacked transportation or had schedule conflicts.

The Biden administration lifted up examples of states and districts that have invested heavily in tutoring, including Maryland, which launched a tutoring corps to focus on middle and high school math this past fall, and Washington, D.C, which is tutoring students in math and English language arts.

During the White House event, Christina Grant, D.C.’s state superintendent of education, said a key part of that investment is staffing tutoring managers in the district’s highest-need schools — a finding that’s been echoed by other tutoring programs. Those managers work like an assistant principal who can set up schedules, examine student data, and group students by ability.

“They are the ones saying, ‘No, no, you can’t go to lunch, you have to come sit here,’” Grant said. “We’re making sure that we didn’t just tell teachers and principals: ‘Hey, do this extra thing.”

Absenteeism soared during the pandemic and remains well above 2018-19 levels in most communities. When children miss school, they fall behind academically and are at greater risk of dropping out. When many students in a school frequently miss class, teachers have to decide whether to repeat material for those who missed, boring their classmates, or leave some students behind.

“We simply cannot accept chronic absenteeism as the new normal,” White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said. “Fortunately, we know what works: engaging parents and families as partners in their children’s education.”

She cited the example of Gompers Elementary-Middle School in northwest Detroit. Chalkbeat chronicled the school’s efforts to keep students in school, including pairing students who were starting to miss too many days with adult mentors and working closely with families.

Family and work obligations, mental health challenges, lack of transportation, and many other factors contribute to children missing too much school.

Federal officials urged schools to make specific commitments to reduce absenteeism, such as increasing calls and texts to parents, doing more home visits, and developing early warning systems. Schools should make sure communication is available in multiple languages.

States also should adopt consistent definitions of chronic absenteeism and incorporate it as a measure in their school accountability system if they haven’t done so already, officials said.

Connecticut Education Commissioner Charlene Tucker-Russell described how the state used data to identify students struggling the most — homeless students, English learners, students with disabilities — and target support. The program trained teachers and community members to do outreach and connect families with shelter, transportation, and mental health resources. An evaluation of the program found a 16% increase in attendance after home visits, Tucker-Russell said.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Luhan Grisholm said she was “embarrassed” about her state’s sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism, including among elementary students. Working with parents is part of the solution, but schools also have to make sure students feel supported and successful so they want to be in school, she said.

“If you aren’t reading at grade level, and you can’t do math at grade level, [school] is not a place you want to be,” she said.

Federal and state officials also emphasized the importance of giving students “more time on task” — both by making sure they are attending school regularly and adding learning time.

That could mean adding time to the school day or year — a strategy many districts have struggled to pull off — or running substantial summer school programs that offer multiple hours of academic instruction per day.

Nearly half of school districts used the largest bucket of COVID relief funds to expand summer school, federal officials said, though already some have made cuts or made plans to do so.

Alabama’s state superintendent, Eric Mackey, said education officials in his state are working with lawmakers and the governor’s office to keep funding summer math and reading camps that have run for the last three years with pandemic aid. The state has provided meals, transportation, and connections to afternoon youth programming to help make it work.

“We’ve built enough momentum that our legislature said: ‘We know we can’t drop this,’” Mackey said. “We have to find a way to continue to fund it and sustain it going forward.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Nearly 10 million children won’t get summer food benefits as states opt out of new federal program

2024-01-10T21:02:51+00:00

Across rural North Dakota, many school districts struggle to staff summer meal programs, and families might live 20 miles from the nearest meal site.

So state officials eagerly got on board when they learned the federal government was launching a permanent summer program that gives low-income families $120 for each of their school-aged children. Families can use the money, which comes loaded on a prepaid card, to buy their own food and cook at home.

“In North Dakota, the summer food service program doesn’t meet the needs of a lot of the students,” said Linda Schloer, who directs child nutrition for the state’s Department of Public Instruction. “For a modest effort both financially and personnel-wise, it just makes sense that we would do whatever we can to try to get the program going as soon as possible.”

States had to tell the federal government by Jan. 1 if they planned to run a Summer EBT program in 2024. As of Wednesday, 35 states said they would. Together they are expected to reach more than 20 million school-aged children — a rare example of a pandemic-era assistance program sticking around after the end of the public health emergency.

But another 9.5 million students who would have been eligible will likely go without after their states declined to participate this year. Some states cited cost and administrative burden, while in others governors balked at accepting federal money.

South Dakota, which serves a similar student population as its neighbor to the north, is among those opting out.

“Federal money often comes with strings attached, and more of it is often not a good thing,” Ian Fury, the chief of communications for Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, wrote in an email. He cited low unemployment, the administrative burden of running the program, and South Dakota’s “robust existing food programs.”

That news came as a disappointment to school leaders like Louie Krogman, the superintendent of the White River School District in South Dakota.

The district serves around 400 students, most of whom are Native American and come from low-income families. The district runs a summer meal program in June, but families are on their own until school starts seven weeks later.

“We do have some families that would have definitely benefited from that additional EBT money,” Krogman said.

Timeline and cost keeps some states from offering Summer EBT this year

Summer EBT will work a little differently depending on the state, but generally states will identify which families qualify for the $120 or more in benefits and either mail out EBT cards for the summer, or load the value onto existing benefit cards. Then families can use that money to buy food at their local grocery store.

The newly permanent program will run similarly to the Pandemic Summer EBT program that operated for the previous three summers, as well as a federal pilot program that tested the concept over the last decade. A 2016 review of that program found that offering these summer benefits reduced child food insecurity and helped kids eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

The extra money is coming at a much-needed time, said Kelsey Boone of the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit that advocates for anti-hunger policies, including Summer EBT.

“In the last year, a lot of the boosts to SNAP benefits ended,” Boone said, referring to the temporary pandemic-era increases to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which ended last spring. Summer EBT “can help offset those cuts,” she said, “especially at a time when food prices are so high.”

In declining to participate, Georgia and Nebraska pointed to their states’ existing summer food programs, while Mississippi said it did not have the funding or staff capacity to run the program. During the pandemic, the federal government covered the full cost of the benefits and running the Summer EBT program, but now states have to split the administrative costs.

Texas said it wasn’t feasible to participate because the final rules and guidance for the program came just days before states had to tell the federal government if they’d be opting in. The state also needs additional funding from the state legislature to run the program, a spokesperson for the state’s health and human services department wrote in an email.

Vermont, too, said the state is working to secure funding and put the necessary IT systems in place. “The goal is to be able to offer this important summer nutrition benefit for eligible children starting in the summer of 2025,” a spokesperson for Vermont’s Department for Children and Families wrote in an email.

Still, in several Republican-led states, the program seemed to get caught in a longstanding political debate over whether the government should provide more publicly funded benefits to families — a debate that’s also raged over whether states should provide free school meals to all students.

Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, for example, issued a statement saying her state opposed participating in Summer EBT because the program didn’t have tight enough restrictions on what foods families could buy and it would cost the state $2.2 million to run — though Iowa students were in line to receive around $29 million in food benefits and the program follows the same nutrition requirements as SNAP.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families,” Reynolds said. “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”

In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt cited concerns about the program not being “fully vetted.” He also said that it would help relatively few children — though an estimated 403,000 school-aged children would qualify for food benefits in his state.

Three of Oklahoma’s largest Native American tribes are stepping in to run Summer EBT programs on their reservations, an effort that could reach at least 50,000 children.

Florida said it opted out of participating because it already had summer food programs and didn’t want to follow additional federal rules.

“We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached,” Miguel Nevarez, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families wrote in an email.

But Sky Beard, the Florida director for No Kid Hungry, an initiative of the nonprofit Share Our Strength that advocated for Summer EBT, sees a big need for the additional summer benefits.

Her organization conducted a poll last year that found around a quarter of parents of school-aged children worried their households wouldn’t have enough to eat.

“There are summer meal sites available throughout the state, but there are real challenges with families accessing those,” she said. Existing programs “just don’t reach all children that participate in school meal programs over the school year.”

Some Republican-led states are embracing the program. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for example, issued an enthusiastic statement about her state’s participation in the anti-hunger program.

“We are leveraging every resource at our disposal to fight this crisis, and Summer EBT promises to be an important new tool to give Arkansas children the food and nutrition they need,” she said.

For now, many states are already working to get Summer EBT up and running by the time school lets out in a few months.

In North Dakota, Schloer is focused on making sure the state has up-to-date addresses for eligible students so families can get their EBT cards in the mail.

The state is preparing to send out lots of emails and texts to families, too, to make sure they know about the new program, and whether they might need to fill out some paperwork to get their benefits.

“If we can get a message on that smartphone and from a reliable source, we’re hoping that they will read it,” Schloer said. Schools, too, can play a part by making sure families know: “It’s legitimate, please pay attention!”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.